Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy
by Felicity Dream
Summary: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude. Danny/Multi probably reverse!harem, massive episodal rewrite. Includes BAMF!Genius!Danny, and a Scooby Gang.
1. Inferno

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place, but very AU.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably. No, definitely going to be spoilers.  
Warnings: Eh….  
Pairings: Danny/???  
A/n: If you watch Lifetime, this is what happens. That was all me and my mom watched when I wrote this. I don't even have the channel any more. I miss it actually…before, I was getting sick of it.

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter One: Inferno_

_**One Year Before**_

"You're female!" Sam began the age-old debate.

The Goth may not care for girly stuff, but she was proud to at least show she was female. Her friend Danny, on the other hand...

"That's not the problem, Sam! I'm a freak!" Danny wailed.

Sam sighed and patted her friend's back sympathetically. Tucker continued to let Danny cry into his shoulder.

"Come on, Danny! It's not that bad. Your powers are a gift. They make you _unique_."

Danny glared at her, "It takes all my concentration not to break things! I'm either going intangible and risking breaking things, or my newly gained strength freakishly breaks things. I'm lucky I haven't gotten in trouble yet!"

Her best friends winced.

"Now, back to what I was saying. Danny, as a fellow female, you need to show a little female pride! You can't dress up like a guy all the time! Heck, the entire school thinks you're a male already!"

Danny shrugged her slender shoulders. It was true. She wore her father's old hoodies from a long time ago, so they weren't as big as his size now, and baggy black jeans. Even her long, precious hair she loved was piled under her cap, with only a few loose strands falling out. She looked like a really feminine boy, as the whole entire school believed. Only the teachers knew the truth and weren't about to rat her out.

"Can we please go back to me being a freak?!"

* * *

_**One Year Later, Present Time**_

A little history lesson about Danny, not Danielle, Fenton. She, like the rest of her family, was a genius. Her parents were scientists, her sister an aspiring pyschologist, and Danny herself was just a genius. She didn't specify in any field. Her parents were all confusing calculations and formulas and theories. Jazz was book smarts and analyzation. Danny?

Think of her as Artermis Fowl the Second…minus the whole criminal venture and all.

Another thing about her, she had a brain condition. She was prone to having seizures because of a chemical imbalance in her brain.

And the last part…well, that was a little too personal to go into right now.

And the newest addition to her life was the added plus, or negative depending on how you see it, of ghost powers and being half-ghost. In Danny's words, being half dead.

It didn't help when Big and Dumb began harassing her.

"Hey, Fentino! Ready for another bashing?"

Danny had managed to avoid Dash before, but now she was cornered. But the big idiot thought she was a guy, and that didn't help in the matters of beatings.

Deciding to just duck and run, she attempted to do so until Dash grabbed the hood of her sweater and pulled her back. Grunting in pain and annoyance, she decided she'd had enough. She twisted around in his grip, giving Dash an upperhook in succession. She glared at his figure on the ground and sneered.

"Get a grip, stupid idiot," Danny narrowed her eyes.

Hearing him being called an idiot, Dash's eyes flashed angrily and he launched himself off the floor and knocked Danny down. He punched Danny once in the face before Lancer appeared and tossed Dash off.

"Baxter, Fenton! My office now!"

Furiously rubbing her cheek, Danny got up and glared at the blond jock that followed after her. They both sat in opposite chairs in Lancer's office, exchanging glares and waiting for the Vice Principal slash English teacher to talk.

"Mr. Baxter, I'd appreciate you not beating up on Mr. Fenton," Lancer looked disapprovingly at Dash. "I don't approve of violence, no matter of your station as sophomore star quarterback on the school's team."

"He started it!" Dash shouted. "He called me a stupid idiot!"

"I saw you coming towards Mr. Fenton with the intent of violence first, Mr. Baxter." Turning his attention towards Danny, he sighed. "Mr. Fenton, Mr. Baxter is suffering from dyslexia. Please refrain from calling him names of that sort."

Danny pursed her lips, but looked at Dash calculatingly. "Sir, with all due respect, he comes at me again I'll knock him down a peg or two. And I didn't know he was suffering from it or else I wouldn't have called him that. But it doesn't help when the stereotype of jocks is stupid and he doesn't disprove that image in class. If he doesn't want people to assume, and they're not going to know he has dyslexia either, then he shouldn't act out in class. You might want to talk to some of your teachers as well, Lancer. If they know he has dyslexia, then they're the ones aiming to humiliate, not me."

Danny got up and stomped away to the door. She paused and then glanced back at Dash quickly.

"I'm sorry for calling you a stupid idiot."

"Mr. Fenton," Lancer called out before Danny was completely out the door. She turned back to him, refusing to look at them in the eye. "I still need to talk to you. Please wait outside while I talk to Mr. Baxter."

It was a couple more minutes before Dash came back out, and Danny slipped into the office, eager to avoid saying anything to Dash.

"Miss Fenton, I apologize –" Lancer started off.

Danny waved her hand, "Don't mention it. Dash was here, and you know how much I'd rather let everyone think I'm a guy."

"Still..." he looked reluctant to leave it as it was. "How have you been?" he changed the subject instead.

Danny grew stony, staring out his window.

"Miss –Danny. Have you been doing fine...?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Mr. Lancer," Danny forced out, feeling tears coming up.

"I'm sorry."

Her head nodded sharply.

"I'd like to talk about it sometime."

She didn't answer.

Lancer sighed, "On another subject...I would like for you to start tutoring a fellow student. Maybe it might...take your mind off of things."

She sighed, "Who?"

"Kwan Jeong," Lancer said hesitantly.

Danny glared at him, "The football player?"

When he didn't answer, she pulled up her knees to her chest and closed her eyes, laying her head on her knees.

"Is there anyone else who can do it?"

"Danny, you and your sister are natural tutors. Mr. Jeong is failing badly, and he doesn't have dyslexia. He needs this help."

Danny shrugged, "I'll do it."

Sighing in relief, Lancer grinned. "Excellent. Now, how's your Tae Kwon Do going?"

Danny grinned back, "Actually, it's Muay Thai now."

Lancer's grin froze on his face, "_Muay Thai_?"

"Yup."

"Are you crazy?! Do you know how dangerous that is?"

Danny giggled, "Figured you'd act that way. I'm still practicing Tae Kwon Do and Wing Chun, but I've moved on to Muay Thai. I'm hoping to get started on Jujutsu in the summer before junior year."

Lancer twitched, "Well, they're hobbies..."

* * *

She dumped her books onto the table and glared at the Asian jock. Kwan nervously sat down and waited for his tutor to get started.

"Listen up. I'm not going to say this twice, so you better listen. Work hard. If you slack off, I'm ditching you. You mouth off to me, I'll ditch you. If you need help, that's what I'm here for. Don't ask to copy my homework. Don't ask me to _do_ your work. Got it?"

Kwan nodded shakily. He didn't know Fenton had a backbone, so this different attitude was new to him.

"Now name all of your subjects you need help with, starting with the hardest for you," she ordered.

"Math, English, World History, and Biology."

She arched an eyebrow, "Biology's the easiest for you, huh? Interesting."

Kwan blushed, "Well, I kind of...like science."

She smirked, "Looks like not all jocks have the brain capacity of a hamster."

And so started her tutoring sessions with Kwan Jeong.

* * *

That Friday, her friends were having a tiff over the change in the lunch menu. Somehow, Sam had managed to convince them to change it to some kind of veggie dish thing that Danny didn't bother to taste. She didn't mind veggies or anything, but Danny wasn't about to eat whatever it was that came from the ground. Or force anyone who didn't want to eat it to eat it.

Instead, Danny disappeared off to wherever she disappeared off to on Friday lunch. Underneath an unnoticeable, large oak tree at the back of the school near the gym, she already saw Coach Julian McKinney waiting with a blanket on the ground, looking as morose as he always did nowadays.

"Not up to eating 'turf sandwich' today?" his lips twisted upwards, but his eyes read 'I'm sorry.' She ignored them and instead sat herself in front of him, rummaging through the picnic basket and stealing a sandwich.

"Not up to being healthy," she deadpanned before savagely taking a bite out of her sandwich.

"I like being healthy, but even I think it's a little too much," he agreed.

"How's the team, Jules?" Danny rolled her eyes, eating much more politely than she started out.

"Good, good. Baxter is looking promising for the JV team, and he'll probably have a spot next year on Varsity. Well, if he can keep his grades up."

"Dash has dyslexia," she blurted out.

He raised an eyebrow, "I know."

Danny looked away, starting to nibble at her sandwich. "The other teachers teach at different paces and it's harder for him. It's not his fault."

"Again, I know that, Danny," Julian said softly. "Why don't you talk to those other teachers then? And if they teach at different paces, you could always help Dash by teaching him yourself, at his pace?"

She stubbornly stayed quiet.

When he was about to talk again, screaming interrupted him. Both of them blinking rapidly in surprise and confusion, they watched as a lot of meat began combining together to form a big monster. Mouth forming an o in surprise and revulsion, Danny thought that that was a rather horrid ghost –if that was a ghost.

"Danny, stay here. I'm going to go check it out," Julian said hurriedly, running towards the school and towards the ghost.

Sighing, Danny finished off her sandwich quickly and then stood up. Making sure no one was around, she muttered very quietly to herself.

"Ars moriendi."

They'd decided having the trigger to her transformation be something not so obvious like 'I'm going ghost!', but something that couldn't be understood. Besides, who would think a Latin phrase had anything to do with the new Ghost Girl? No one studied Latin any more anyway. Besides, it was fitting. Ars moriendi. The art of dying.

She quickly took care of the Lunch Lady –and wow did that ghost have a mean grudge against Sam for just changing the menu! –then she made it back to the area Julian had ordered her to stay out of sight at. She made it time to see him coming back for her.

"You should've seen it!" he grinned widely at her. "That Ghost Girl came again, Phantom she said her name was, and beat up that ghost pretty badly. And oh did Phantom have the nicest legs!"

Danny rolled her eyes, "Pervert."

Julian grinned, "Of course, my dear. Though your legs will always be prettiest."

She snorted and then hefted up her backpack onto her shoulder. "Whatever, Jules. Look, bell's about to ring. I've got to head to my next class."

"I'm sorry," he said anxiously as her back turned to leave.

She stiffened. "There's nothing to be sorry for, Jules. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I should've never let Jack Madden near you!"

She turned halfway, glaring at him from underneath her bangs.

"Drop it."

"No," he glared back half-heartedly.

"I said –!"

"No! If I'd known, he never would've been able to rape you!"

Danny was quiet. He tried to speak again, but she just turned on her heel and kept walking away.

"Danny, you're still suffering. You may go around acting normal, but it's still affecting you now," he said remorsefully, and though she was gaining distance from him, she still heard it.

She didn't bother with a response.

* * *

"There's a dance coming up," Sam prodded her friend.

Danny, however, had been unresponsive since lunch ended. She'd just sat at her seat, quietly taking down notes and ignoring everything around her.

Frustrated, Sam crumpled up a piece of paper and hit her friend in the head with it. Reluctantly, Danny turned her head and looked at her.

"No buts. You're going to the dance and you're going to look like a _female_ for once. If you want, you and I can go together," Sam offered.

Danny sighed, "I'll think about it, Sam. I'm just not feeling up to it."

Sam frowned, but nodded.

Settling her head down onto the desk and onto her arms, Danny hid her face into her clothed arms and began to cry. Seeing her, Mr. Falluca looked the other way and kept teaching, not willing to call her out.

It was an occasional thing with Danny.

Started 8/23/08 –Completed 8/23/08


	2. Purgatorio

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably.  
Warnings: Eh….  
Pairings: Danny/???

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Two: Purgatorio_

"I am the Box Ghost!"

Danny growled in annoyance, practicing a Muay Thai move she hadn't had time to master on the poor ghost. She switched to Wing Chun, which she was much better at, and quickly sucked the Box Ghost into the Fenton Thermos.

"Great job, Danny! Now you have to get back home to sleep for 4 fours," Tucker glanced at the PDA.

Danny groaned and muttered, "I wanna sleep more..."

"You really don't have much time," Sam looked at her apologetically.

Danny grumbled to herself, grabbing a hold of her friends and flying them home. She was annoyed when she finally arrived home, falling into a disgruntled sleep. When she woke up, it was like she had never gone to sleep at all. That meant arriving to school angrily and glaring at everyone who so much as looked her way.

Slamming her locker closed, she almost jumped when she noticed Kwan nervously standing near her locker.

"Hey there, tutor!" he greeted uncertainly.

She scowled at him. "What is it?"

"Uh…I, uh, need help on something. You said I should…come see you if I needed help…on something."

Danny snorted, "What 'something'?"

"I need help with my science grade. I…got a D for the quarter unless I can bring it up," he said quietly.

Oh.

_Oh_.

She grabbed the sleeve of his letterman jacket and dragged him quickly into a janitor's closet. She took a deep breath to calm herself down from her annoyance earlier and then spoke.

"What happened? I thought you liked science."

He sighed, "I messed up. Coach had us practicing all night before a Biology test and I forgot to study for it. I panicked during the test and now I have D."

Danny scratched the back of her head tiredly. "I'll think of something you can do. Just…relax today and put it out of your mind, okay? Don't worry, Kwan."

Kwan smiled hesitantly at her. "Thanks, um, Fenton."

"Danny. Just…Danny."

Kwan nodded more surely and then left the janitor's closet. Danny winced, leaning against the metal shelves that held numerous cleaning supplies. What was she thinking, reassuring a jock like that? And letting him use her name!

Quickly getting out of there, she headed to her class, wondering how she could easily have put aside her attitude for someone else. Unfortunately, she had Biology first, and all she could think about was how to help her wayward student.

Mr. Johnson eagerly called her over after class ended and she patiently waited for him to talk.

"Miss Fenton, there's a project I want your help with, if you're willing. I was planning on observing Samson, the purple-back gorilla. It would be a tremendous help if you helped me out," he said rapidly.

Danny managed to catch what he was saying at the same time as a light bulb lit up in her head.

"Mr. Johnson, I would be happy to. On one condition."

"Name it," he said confidently.

"I would like to request Kwan Jeong to help as extra credit, to bring up his grade."

Mr. Johnson looked contemplative, "It'll only be one letter grade."

She nodded, "Well, he gets a passing grade for the quarter at least, instead of a D."

"Alright, when I see him next period, I'll request his help. Meet me after school so we can get started, okay?"

Danny agreed and it wasn't long before school was out and Danny was walking towards her Biology classroom to meet with Mr. Johnson and Kwan. However, along the way, Kwan appeared next to her.

"Danny, thank you so much!"

She sidestepped the hug and he stumbled, but quickly regained his footing. Still, he was grinning and it was infectious, so she smiled back.

"This is great. I won't let you down, Danny. I'll do my best!"

Danny laughed, "Okay, then don't. I'll always be expecting your best from you."

They just didn't expect to be camping out in the building across from the building Samson was being kept at.

"Mr. Johnson, all we've seen so far was the gorilla scratching its butt," Danny scowled.

Kwan was busy making paper footballs and flicking them across the room, while their teacher obsessively watched Samson. Danny had switched from observing the gorilla to contemplating joining Kwan.

"Fascinating," Mr. Johnson commented instead.

Danny sighed and walked across the room and across from Kwan. Picking up a paper football, she aimed and flicked, letting it fly across the room and over Kwan's head.

"Score!" Kwan cheered as he watched it sail in the air.

Danny rolled her eyes. "I could be doing a lot more important things," she muttered under her breath.

Suddenly an explosion sounded in that same building and cracks appeared in the ceiling. Startling the occupants, Mr. Johnson was unable to react completely when a small piece of the ceiling crumbled and hit his head, knocking him out.

"Kwan, take Mr. Johnson out of the building! I'll be right behind you!" she hissed to him.

Kwan was about to protest, but Danny glared and he shut up, still not used to her rough attitude. Without a second order from Danny, Kwan grabbed Mr. Johnson and left.

The word 'whipped' in Sam's voice came to mind, but Danny ignored it and pushed it away.

"Ars moriendi!"

She changed into her ghost form and went intangible, flying through the building and then locating a hulking suit of metal right next to Samson in the next building.

"Ah, ghost child! At last, we meet," it said predatorily.

"Bad images," she shivered. "Now who the hell are you and what do you want with me?"

"I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest predator! And you, halfa, are the rarest and most interesting of prizes. I must capture you and add you to my collection!"

Danny smacked her forehead in exasperation. "You've got to be kidding me..."

Seeing Samson, Danny gestured to the gorilla and said dryly, "Sammy, my man, let's tag team this idiot."

Danny sweatdropped when Samson roared and banged his fists against his chest, then he charged forward and knocked Skulker away from Danny.

"Nice," Danny whistled, and then she joined in on beating the crap out of Skulker.

Needless to say, there were three things Danny learned from the encounter. One, Samson was female. Secondly, she was capable at kicking ghost butt. Lastly, apparently purple-back gorillas are proficient at mimicking Muay Thai moves.

That somehow landed Danny in the women genius magazine Jazz had somehow gotten to interview her family while she was gone; and instead of her family being the focus, Danny was. Not that Jazz cared, as long as they were in the magazine and the focus wasn't on ghost hunting.

Also, Kwan had his grade moved two letters up, because of the good findings (which they all knew had more to do with Danny than them) and mostly because Kwan helped saved Mr. Johnson's life. Kwan was entitled to a little leeway this time around...

Well, it was all in a good day's work, in Danny's opinion...

* * *

"Why in the hell is there a dragon in my basement?!" Danny screeched, avoiding a swipe from its claws.

Sam grunted out a reply she couldn't hear, followed by the Goth girl using an ecto-gun to fire a blast at the dragon. Tucker squealed like a girl, but dived towards the fallen Fenton Thermos. Frantically throwing it to Danny, she caught it and quickly aimed it towards the dragon.

It was sucked in and all three of them sighed in relief.

"Now about that dance, Danny. It'll be good for you..." Sam continued off from where they were cut off because of the dragon ghost.

"Not now, Sam. Talk about it when I get back," Danny said uncomfortably, hurriedly making her way to the portal to get rid of the ghost. In the Ghost Zone, she let out the ghost. Confusingly, a girl in medieval clothing appeared instead of the dragon she was expecting.

"I want to go the ball," she sniffled.

Danny's mouth opened in an o. "Um, look, you can't go to the dance. You wouldn't fit in, see? You don't look like me or the others. Why don't you go to a ghost ball or something?"

"There aren't any," the girl pouted. "At least go to the ball in my stead?"

Danny winced, "Maybe. I'll try."

"Alright, then I shall go about my own business. My name is Dorathea and I have been pleased to meet your acquaintance!"

Danny nodded and left. When she disappeared, Dorathea sighed but then jumped high into the air when her brother appeared.

"You don't have your necklace," Aragon commented, staring pointedly at where her amulet should've been.

Dorathea shrieked in panic when she noticed that as well. She looked to where Danny had disappeared, but she was long gone.

"Oh no, she must have my necklace!"

"Who was she?" Aragon cut in.

"Um, the halfa everyone is talking about. Danny Phantom," she answered unsurely.

"I see," he muttered. "Leave the amulet be. I will take care of it. Dorathea, you're in charge of the castle while I'm gone."

"But brother!"

Aragon snapped his fingers and his ghastly appearance changed into a more human one. His gaunt face filled out and the shadows around his eyes disappeared. His skin was tanned and his eyes were brown. His thin figure became as muscular as it was when he was alive. His oily looking dark hair turned strawberry blond, and shortened to around chin-length.

"I'll be back, Dorathea," Aragon smiled slyly at his sister and walked away.

* * *

"_So, uh, are you going to the dance tomorrow?" Kwan asked suddenly. _

_Danny marked another of his answers wrong before answering, "I don't know. Maybe. Probably."_

"_Oh...are you planning on going with someone?" _

_Danny looked up, confused. "Well, I'll probably go with Tuck and Sam."_

"_Ah. I see."_

_He became quiet after that, and so Danny moved closer and began explaining why his answers were wrong. _

The strange talk was still in Danny's mind as she walked through the park, determined to get some peace and quiet before Sam began calling her again to bug her into going to the dance.

"You there, miss," a soft voice called out and Danny looked up sharply, gazing at a handsome man.

She couldn't explain why her eyes glazed over, or why she began blushing. It also seemed she had lost the ability to speak. In fact, the only thing she noticed was the amulet she had found and put around her neck was burning hot against her skin.

His strawberry blond locks seemed more colored like a sunset, and his eyes seemed to be staring intensely at her.

"Miss Phantom, would you do me the honor of going to the ball with me?"

When Danny would recall the encounter later, she had no idea why she had said yes. When she told Tucker and Sam that she had a date to the ball, they stared dumbfounded at her, while she shrugged it off. It seemed a very strange affair.

So the next night, just before the start of the ball, and she was left alone in the house, Danny dressed herself in a slinky black halter dress her mother had worn only once before. She was done curling her hair, and was slowly piling it onto her head, eyes gazing into the mirror almost blankly. When she touched up her makeup, the doorbell rang.

Going down, she answered it and smiled at her date. Aragon waited at the door, with a mahogany carriage pulled by two black stallions parked behind him, and smiling charmingly at her. He held out his hand and she grabbed a hold of it, letting him lead her into the carriage.

She was still staring adoringly at him when the carriage stopped in front of the school, and everyone waiting for the doors to open gaped at the couple that exited the carriage and began to walk towards the entrance. Everyone was either whispering about the fancy carriage they arrived in, or the couple themselves.

Aragon was dressed in fancy medieval clothing, that probably only royalty wore. But his clothing wasn't the only talk, because he _was_ rather handsome and with an alluring air. His unusual coloring didn't help either.

Danny, as everyone believed, usually looked male. With her long hair in display in curls, and body shown off in a dress, Danny looked very much female right then. No one recognized her and everyone wondered who were this beautiful couple.

Then again, Sam and Tucker were busy gaping at their friend.

"Danny sure cleans up well," Tucker had hearts in his eyes.

Sam smacked him upside his head, "Tucker! Something's very wrong with this picture. Danny doesn't date. More importantly, she looks mesmerized by something."

Tucker snorted, "Yeah, mesmerized by him."

Sam growled and pulled on his ear, forcing them to fall back into the shadows and hide there to converse.

"Just watch out for her."

* * *

Kwan was in a bad mood for the dance. He had a date, but for some reason he had been in a really bad mood starting just after he'd asked Danny if he had a date. He wasn't sure what was wrong with himself, but he was sure there was something wrong with him when the couple that came out of a fancy carriage and his first thought was that the girl looked like Danny.

Well, a _female_ Danny.

In fact, it was so ridiculous that he even began to feel jealous of the handsome stranger next to her. It just became wrong when he'd noticed his friend also staring in awe of them, and instead of commenting with him as always, Kwan began feeling jealous of _Dash_.

"Dude, she's really pretty," Dash murmured to him, staring as she walked passed them with the man.

Kwan pursed his lips and didn't answer.

And all the while, both of Danny's best friends were plotting on how to help her.

"I still don't get why we have to do this. I mean, what if Danny really is on a date?" Tucker scowled.

Sam gritted her teeth, "Just shut up and go along with this."

They waited for the opportune moment, watching as the dance started and Danny and the stranger were the focus of attention on and off the dance floor.

"They sure can dance together," Tucker commented, watching the two end a tango.

Sam ignored him.

After the audience finished applauding and another song came up, the spotlight couple finally managed to sneak away. That was when Sam dragged Tucker after her and they hurried after the rapidly disappearing couple.

"I had a really nice night," Danny smiled shyly up at him.

"So did I, milady," Aragon gently took hold of her hand and brought it to his lips, giving it a chaste kiss. He then began bringing her closer, with no protest from her, and was lowering his head closer to hers when her best friends were finally able to interrupt.

"Stop right there, jerkoff! Leave Danny alone!" Sam came in, eyes blazing.

"Yeah, what she said!" Tucker followed.

Aragon sighed exasperatedly and sneered at them. "Did you really have to ruin the moment?"

"Yeah, 'cause it was getting to the good part," Sam finished sarcastically.

He let go of Danny, but still kept her close. "Listen you moronic imbeciles, get out of my way. I'm trying to give the lady her fairytale ending."

"And what? You're her Prince Charming?" Sam sneered back.

Tucker watched them snark at each other like a ping-pong match.

"Precisely," Aragon gave a menacing grin and then he lightly caressed the matching amulet around his neck. They watched in dread as he turned into a dragon, taking Danny with him in one of his claws.

"Oh –" Sam started.

"Shit." Tucker finished for her.

They ducked out of the way of a rampaging dragon tail.

* * *

Danny felt more aware of herself, and saw in confusion that she was being held in the air by a dragon. Last she remembered, Dorathea was in the Ghost Zone…and why was she in a dress?!

In fact, she could tell she was entirely dressed up. Like no doubt at all she was female.

Cursing this new revelation and hoping no one recognized her, Danny looked back up to the dragon's face. She began recalling the events that followed after talking to Dorathea and with a vague measure of regret, Danny took her purse and pulled out a Fenton Thermos.

"Sorry," she smiled apologectically. "But I'm going to have cut this date short. And as I carry one of these around always, I guess it's time to say goodbye," upcapping it, she aimed it at him and he screamed as he was sucked inside, forcibly letting go of her.

She quickly capped it and felt herself begin free fall to the ground. At the last minute, Danny turned intangible and avoided being splattered.

"Hey guys," she greeted her friends from her spot lying on the ground.

"Hey," they grinned at her.

She grinned back. It was good to have friends that cared.

Deciding she'd had enough fun for the night, she bid them bye and was about to go home when she was cornered by Julian.

"Jules," she mock-saluted.

He smiled and nervously led her to a locked room. When he unlocked it, she recognized it as the band room. Soft music began to play in the background and Julian turned back to face her.

"So, uh, can I have this dance?" he asked hesitantly.

She gaped at him before uncharacteristically blushing and accepting his hand. They slow-danced for a couple songs before Danny thought she should go.

"Thanks, Jules. I think I needed that," she admitted.

He grinned and waved her goodbye.

* * *

She looked up at what she would call the sky of the Ghost Zone. Sighing morosely, she upcapped the Fenton Thermos and let Aragon out. He appeared, still in his human appearance.

"I thought you'd revert by now," she said wryly.

He shrugged, "I thought it more fitting we end it this way. I am sure this form is more to your liking anyway."

"I…really had a nice time," she gave him a half smile.

He smiled sadly at her, "As did I , milady. As did I."

Her lips turning up regrettingly at that, she kissed his cheek quickly before she could change her mind. She left before he could get out a response, though he was left to chuckle quietly to himself after he got over the shock. Floating back home, he stayed a little longer in the form he was in. Just to have the memories last longer…

Started 8/24/08 –Completed 8/25/08


	3. Paradiso

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably.  
Warnings: Eh….  
Pairings: Danny/???

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Three: Paradiso_

"Fenton!"

Danny growled under her breath as Dash sped towards her, angrily looking like he failed another test or something equally bad had happened. His hand cocked back and Danny ducked, delivering a swift kick to his abdomen. Sniffing in disdain, Danny did a backhand to his head for good measure, knocking down Dash to the floor and knocking him out.

Whatever. She'd told Lancer that she wouldn't stand for it. If Dash came after her, she'd fight back. Lancer looked the other way, unwilling to punish either of them. Still, it wasn't like it was all that serious. It was actually pretty standard for Dash to come looking for her to blow off steam, and then usual for Danny to instead kick his ass. It'd gone from bullying, then fighting, and now to some usual habit of their idea of a meet and greet.

But now something was different. Something was wrong with Dash. He was acting really weird the whole day, ever since their usual scrimmage. In fact, if she wasn't sure Dash thought she was a guy, she would think he was giving her puppy looks.

It was really strange, seeing Dash act so sappy around her. He opened doors for her, smiled widely, and all sorts of stuff he would never do for her. It was weirder when she felt like she actually didn't mind the attention. It felt…kind of nice.

School had just ended and Danny had to wait around at school to wait for Jazz, who had to do some after school activities. She would've flown home, but Jazz insisted on giving her a ride. Now Sam and Tucker were gone and the school was empty. Deciding to just walk around, she idly went around until her ghost sense went off.

Frowning unhappily, she transformed and went after the ghost. She was in one of the unusued hallways of the school, supported by the fact it was dark, dusty, and creepy, when she finally found something. Only, it was Dash of all people. Not a ghost, and definitely not someone she wanted to see her like this.

"Wait!"

And there was something in his voice that made her pause, even if for a second.

"What is it?" she asked sharply, backing away.

Dash nervously came forward and she was so shocked by him that she didn't even notice she had backed into a row of lockers. When he came closer still, her confusion upped and she'd almost forgotten she was in ghost form, and therefore he couldn't recognize her.

But all that flew out of her head when Dash reached her and was suddenly closer to her than she was comfortable with. His arms went up and rested against the lockers on either side of her head, leaning on them and becoming even closer to her.

'_Go intangible already! Get __away from him! Something's not right!' _

That thought also didn't reach her as fear gripped her instead. She began to panic even more as his face drew closer to her. In a last ditch effort, she shoved him away from her roughly and slid to the ground, crying and borderline hyperventilating.

"Phantom, I'm so sorry!" and that voice didn't sound like Dash.

Looking up, she saw some nerdy looking kid drift from Dash's body, looking panicked but not worried about the collapsed body that he'd just occupied.

"Oh, I'm so, so sorry! I didn't mean to upset you! I just thought…Oh, I don't know what I was thinking!"

Wiping her face dry, she looked up pathectically at him. "Who're you?"

"Sidney Poindexter, at your service!" he nervously introduced himself.

"Ghost," she muttered before hitting her head against her curled knees.

* * *

"Wow, she's _pretty_," Poindexter gaped.

'_And fiesty too,'_ his mind added as he watched the halfa everyone in the Ghost Zone talked about.

She knocked the bully unconcious, a fact he cheered about, and then went about her way. He saw the bully, Dash he thought he heard her call him, slowly get up and grumbling as he went to class.

'_I wonder…'_ Poindexter narrowed his eyes.

In a split second, he flew into Dash and took over his body. He remembered how jocks got all the girls in his days, and this one was definitely a jock. Who could resist the zeal of being with a jock or the popularity that came with being girlfriend to one? Certainly not Phantom. Even better, he was within reach of Phatom and Poindexter could always make up for all the bullying this one did to her. It was a win-win situation, he decided, ready to turn on the jock charm and make Phatom his girlfriend.

He ignored everyone else as he followed her around, glad that it seemed he had all the same classes as she did. His attention focused entirely on her and he thought he was very gentleman-ly when he opened the doors so she could get through. Through most of the classes, he tried not to make it obvious that he was staring at her, but it was hard sometimes.

Finally, school was over and he could finally corner her without anyone else interfering. He saw her transform and then led her to an abandoned hallway. He just didn't expect this to happen. He only wanted to kiss her and he thought, and Gosh was he copying everything he'd seen jocks do for girls, that she'd want to kiss him. He didn't think she'd freak out like this.

"It's Danny. Don't call me Phantom," she muttered as she shakily got up. He tried to help her, but he didn't think he was much use.

"I'm sorry. Everyone talks about you in the Ghost Zone and you're so pretty…I-I wanted to kiss you," he stuttered out.

She sighed and smiled half-heartedly, "It's alright. It's my issues. It's not your fault."

"I-if you say so…"

"Look, I gotta take you back to the Ghost Zone. You gotta come with me, okay?"

He nodded and they flew together to her home.

"Um, Danny?"

She looked over to him, "Yeah?"

"Can you do me a favor?"

"It depends on what it is."

"Well, you see, I'm always picked on by everyone in my school. If you could drop me off there and kiss me on my cheek? I might be popular for a couple of weeks and they wouldn't bully me so much."

She was quiet for a moment, but then she flashed him a grin. "Sure, why not?"

They entered her house quietly, sneaking down to the basement. They went through the Ghost Portal and then Poindexter led her to his floating, ghostly school.

"I should map this place out," Danny commented, looking around in boredom.

"It might be a good idea, so you don't get lost…or even if you want to visit," he finished shyly.

The school came into view and they stopped in front of the doors. Poindexter could see everyone ganging up against the windows to watch them.

"I'll see you around, Sid," Danny smirked and then caught him unaware when she kissed his cheek. She turned and flew away, waving behind her.

Dazed, he entered the school and then was promptly shocked when everyone exploded into clamor.

"Way to go, dude! _Phantom_!"

"Did you see? _The_ Ghost Gal kissed Sidney!"

"Oh my, do you see him? He's all dazed! How cute."

"I can't believe it. Sidney Poindexter was kissed by Phantom?!"

"It's no fair! Why him?"

"Why, she really is pretty!"

"How did Poindexter get a kiss from her?"

Poindexter smiled. The After Life was all good.

Somewhere back in Casper High, Dash groaned and got up from the floor. Why couldn't he remember anything? Why was he on the _floor_? What the hell happened and where is everyone?!

* * *

This was horrible. That ghost was going to be the death of Danny, Tucker with ghost powers or no ghost powers. Desiree was granting wishes left and right, and Danny was the one that had to go around fixing up the messes left behind. Even worse, Tucker really did have ghost powers because of her, and he was becoming more and more unbearable.

Because she was thinking so much, she'd lost Desiree. Shouting in frustration, Danny frowned and tried to locate her.

Meanwhile, Kwan was pulling at his hair.

"I wish I knew what I wanted," he greeted his teeth.

Unknowingly, Desiree was there and she smirked, "As it is desired, so shall it be."

Suddenly, Kwan's mind was assaulted by images of Danny. He tried to think of something else, but even though he tried, his mind just kept ocming back to Danny.

"Oh God! Don't tell me…" But it made sense. The way Kwan got flustered around the other boy, the way he'd feel jealous of others around him, or feel possessive of Danny.

Kwan admitted that maybe he liked Danny as more than a friend.

He decided that maybe he shouldn't wait to tell him. This really was important, and he couldn't just sit around right then. When he'd found him, he was angrily pacing around the park. He cleared his throat to get Danny's attention, and waited.

Danny whirled around in surprise. "Kwan?"

"Ah, hey. I have something I need to tell you."

Danny nodded for him to continue, but Kwan stayed silent, staring at her. She awkwardly waited for him to say something, unsure what the Asian jock had wanted.

"Danny, this may seem sudden, but I had an epiphany. I was thinking I wish I knew what I wanted, because I was so confuse at the time. But then the answer came to me "

"Wait, did you just say wish?" Danny interrupted him.

Kwan nodded, confused.

"Look, Kwan, I'm really sorry but this is important. I have to go. Why don't you call me later and tell me then?" Danny said as she waved bye apologectically.

Kwan sighed. He'd missed his chance to confess.

All Danny could think about was how not only did she have to deal with Tucker, but now she had to make Desiree fix whatever she did to Kwan. Oh, was she going to beat her into a pulp…

Finding her, Danny growled angrily.

"You. Are. Despicable."

Desiree laughed delightedly, "I am just fulfilling everyone's heart's true desire. If people were just content, then I wouldn't be granting so many wishes!"

"Well, grant this wish! I wish you'd just get into this thermos!" Danny yelled, finally able to suck Desiree into the Fenton Thermos.

"Now to deal with Tucker…" Danny narrowed her eyes.

* * *

After dealing with Tucker, Danny decided to check up on Kwan. She still wasn't sure what Desiree had done to Kwan, but she wanted to make sure that he was at least alright. She was glad that his wish was rather harmless compared to everything else, though…

"Hey, Kwan! It's me Danny."

"Oh, hey. What's up?" for some reason, he sounded dejected. Danny became a little more worried that maybe Desiree had done more damage to him than she'd thought.

"Nothing really. I'm at home, working on my homework for once."

"You'd better," she smiled. "Now, what was it that you wanted to tell me?"

Kwna was quiet on the other line and Danny began to get worried. "It was nothing. I was just going to ask you for some help, but I managed to do it on my own."

Danny didn't buy that. Kwan sounded like he had wanted to confess something earlier, not ask for help on something. But she didn't question him.

"Well, then…I was just calling, since it seemed like you forgot to call me. I guess since everything is okay…"

And then she could practically feel him smiling, "I'm glad you called. It's very sweet of you and I'm sorry I didn't call back."

Danny smiled, "No problem. Talk to you tomorrow at school."

"Talk to you later," he murmured back.

She hung up, but she was still worried. Kwan seemed okay, but there was something off about him. Deciding to keep an eye on him, Danny went to sleep, wondering what could it have been that had bothered Kwan so.

Started 8/27/08 –Completed 8/28/08


	4. Absit Invidia

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably.  
Warnings: Eh….  
Pairings: Danny/???

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Four: Absit Invidia_

"I still can't believe you two knew _Vlad Masters_ when you were in college!" Jazz sighed.

Danny rolled her eyes, pulling her hood over head. Jazz was all Vlad Masters this and Vlad Masters that ever since they left home and their parents had commented on how they'd known the man. Frankly, she was getting sick of it. Heck, she could say she was already sick of the man and Danny hadn't even met him yet.

Though, seeing his castle, Danny bit her tongue but couldn't help the grin.

"That…is one nice crib," Danny admired. "Exterior designing could be better, but then again, he's probably a Packers fanatic."

The doors opened just as she said that, revealing Vlad Masters himself. "I wouldn't call myself a fanatic. It's such a crude term. But I am a fan! Good eye, girl."

Vlad welcomed them inside and the inside was just as bit as green and gold as the outside.

"Huh, nice football," Danny looked at the signed football on display.

"It's my prize possession, signed by the star quaterback," Vlad told her proudly.

Danny grinned, "Very nice."

Her grin turned into a wince when her father tackled Vlad.

"Oh man…"

Both she and her sister sighed in exasperation. Ignoring the adults, the two sisters looked around the rest of the foyer. Jazz was happy that there were at least working toilets, but Danny was just happy to be out of Amity Park. Not to mention, Vlad seemed kind of cool and his place was great.

"I think I might get some rest here," Danny murmured to herself. She didn't know that Vlad had heard her.

* * *

"Dammit!" Danny turned ghost, and saw the three vultures she'd fought not too long ago about to attack her father. Huffing in agitation, Danny turned intangible and brought her father to the bathroom and then returned to fight those ghost vultures.

But as soon as she returned, they looked frightened and ran away.

"Now that was weird," Danny arched an eyebrow.

"Indeed, you'd expect them to fight a bit more," a voice said behind her.

Whirling around, Danny got into a fighting stance and stared in shock at the ghost. He looked a bit like a vampire.

"Woah, Count Dracula. This place is nice, we don't wanna go messing it up, you know? The owner is pretty cool too, so we shouldn't mess the guy's crib up, right? It's not a very nice thing to do."

But the vampire ghost just grinned, "No, I don't think he'd mind all that much."

And then he shot forward and landed a hit to her stomach. She gasped out, but ignored the pain.

"The name's Plasmius," and then he returned to attacking her.

She knew right away that this one had some kind of training, but she had more. The only worse part was that he was stronger, physically and powerwise, and more experienced in his ghost powers. She could win in hand to hand, but this guy just kept teleporting away or using his ghost powers in ways she'd never thought to use them.

Attempting one last hit, she gritted her teeth as he blocked it and grabbed that hand, yanking her forward and backhanding her. The blow too powerful, Danny blacked out, not knowing she'd transformed back.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that. Jack's youngest is the halfa."

And so Plasmius transformed into Vlad Masters, staring down contemplatively at Danny Fenton and understanding what she had meant earlier that day.

* * *

Danny woke up, feeling sore. Groaning in pain, she blinked in confusion when she saw the room she was in. Then she remembered that she and her family were staying in Vlad Master's home.

"Oh man, what hit me?"

"Are you quite alright, Danielle?" Vlad's voice came from the door.

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. And it's just Danny. It's not short for anything," she hesitantly smiled at the older man.

"I see. Well, if you need anything, the workers are all around the castle. I'll be going now, little badger," Vlad smiled thinly and then left.

"Huh." Danny shrugged it off, wondering what was up with the 'little badger' nickname. Weird, but whatever.

The next day, Jazz had convinced Danny to wear one of her old skirts and a white dress shirt, making Danny feel a little uncomfortable at wearing tighter than normal clothing. The high school reunion started that night, and Danny didn't have time to ponder any more as she went around greeting all of her parents' old classmates. Oddly enough, she was sure some of them were flirting with her…

She shuddered at that, but decided not to think that much on it.

"Danny! Babe!" One of the guys she was talking with earlier, Guyton she thought his name was, called her over.

Rolling her eyes, she walked towards the group. "Yo, Guy."

"Ain't she a classic?" Guy laughed. One of his friends snickered and slapped his back. "Dude, lay off the beer. Don't mind him. Danny, right? I'm Roger."

Danny nodded, "Drunk, is he? I know a way for instant sobering and a handover cure."

"Oh really? Care to share?" Roger grinned, curious.

Danny grinned back, and then hit Guy at the back of his head really hard and pinched the back of his neck.

"Holy shit!" he cursed, and then blinked really fast.

"Watch your language, Guy," Roger snorted, though he was amused by Danny's instant sobering method. "So what's that hangover cure?"

Danny smirked and then leaned over to whisper it in his ear.

"And you know this how?" Guy pouted.

"I'm a genius and I experimented. I gave it…to a friend of mine," Danny faltered.

They noticed the slip, but didn't say anything.

"So, what does Jack and Maddie do nowadays? Where are they anyway?" Roger looked over the crowd.

"My parents hunt ghosts," Danny deadpanned.

"Are you serious?" Guy gaped at her.

"Yup."

"They always were interested in the supernatural," Roger shrugged.

Danny shrugged as well.

"Man, your eyes are really pretty," Guy sighed.

Danny blinked, "Is he still drunk?"

"Nope. He's always like that," Roger grimaced.

"Guy, are you flirting with me?" she asked incredulously.

"You got that right. Just flirt back."

Her jaw dropped and she stared at him. He just looked innocent and whistled.

She snorted and thought what the heck. She might as well enjoy herself as long as she was away from Amity Park. So for most of the night, she stayed with the two guys and talked about whatever and flirted with both.

Near the end of the party, when both Guy and Roger had to leave early, Danny just mingled around. She spotted her parents by this Asian woman, who looked ready to throw herself off a cliff. She quickly walked over there and intervened.

"Mom, Dad, don't you think you should go dance for a while?" Danny remarked candidly.

"That's a good idea, Danny!" Jack exclaimed. He grabbed Maddie's hand and scrambled over to the dance floor.

"Oh God, thank you!" the woman beside her said in relief. "The name's Hariet Chin. Don't call me Hari."

"Got it. I'm guessing my Dad calls you that?"

Hariet nodded.

"Well, that's my Dad for you. He can be a little overbearing," Danny shrugged. "Still love him."

"If you insist," Hariet twitched.

"So…what do you do?"

And then they began to talk about Hariet's job, leading to talk about news and etc. They exchanged contact information, before the dying party was interrupted when Danny's father flew into the air.

"Ghost!" she heard her mother scream. And then it was utter chaos.

People ran around and she got separated from Hariet. She ducked under a table and transformed, looking out for Hariet and her mother. She spotted them together, so she turned intangible and flew fast towards her father. Knocking the other ghost out of her father's body, she flew them away from the others and into the study in the next room.

And here she thought she was going to have a relatively peaceful end to her weekend, after not seeing any ghosts for quite some time –not even the vampire ghost. And now she _was_ facing that vampire ghost.

"Plasmius," she spat out, glaring at the ghost.

"Phantom," Plasmius smirked.

Growling, Danny pushed off from the ground and flew towards him. "I owe you for the last fight."

Plasmius was still as good as ever, but Danny picked up on a thing or two from their fight. Switching to the harder hitting Muay Thai, Danny forced herself to go a bit faster to land a good kick to Plasmius' stomach, that shot him back a several feet until his back hit the stone wall harshly.

Plasmius coughed out, surprising Danny when red blood came dribbling out of his mouth. She got ready for another assault, but then Plasmius grinned.

"You win round two, Phantom. But next time…" he turned intangible and escaped before she could get him.

Scowling, Danny clenched her fists.

Nothing more happened after that, and no one could explain what _had_ happened. Danny advised Hariet not to write about it, just knowing it was a bad idea for the Asian reporter, and then kept to herself as everyone tried to make sense of things or help clean up.

The Fenton family was ready to leave the next morning when Vlad gave gifts to all of them. Jazz got this new book she'd wanted about teen therapy, Vlad gave Maddie an expensive looking necklace, and Jack got a framed photograph from when they were in school. Danny was gifted with a new cell phone. There was a text message already in there.

_If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to call._

_-Uncle Vlad_

Sure enough, his numbers were already in her cell. Shrugging, Danny was just happy with her new phone. They all waved goodbye to Vlad, who waved cheerily from the front of his castle.

"I'll have fun teaching you, Danny _Phantom_," Vlad murmured. He taught her to be more aggressive. Now there were certainly more things to learn.

* * *

She was hoping for at least a week break, but she really should expect better now. When her father asked her, frantically looking around the rest of the house, to look for his anniversary gift in the basement, Danny banged her head against the wall when she saw the ghost portal opened.

"I _really_ should've known by now," she muttered to herself.

Taking the Spectre Speeder, Danny grumbled to herself as she activated it and drove it through the portal. Turning on the real world item locator, Danny drove around until it led her to a prison-like building.

"Damn…damn, damn, damn!"

She ignored the urge to bang her head against the wheel. She drove through it, accidentally going through the walls, but finding that the Spectre Speeder just went through like a ghost did.

"Huh."

She parked it in a room and then walked out, finding herself in an office. Catching sight of the present floating in the air and seeing a glowing green book on the desk, she decided to look at the book first.

Her eyes blinked rapidly as she read through it in disbelief. Grabbing a pen off to the side, she began writing all over it.

"What are you doing?!"

"Wow, like white much, mafia man?" Danny's eyebrows rose into her hairline, seeing the new ghost.

"The name's Walker, little girl, and you shouldn't mess around with things you don't understand. Those rules are –!"

"Fallacious. The rules in this book are fallacious and contradictory. I made corrections so that this book makes sense," Danny said, looking at him disapprovingly.

Walker gaped, "Little girl, you don't know who you're messing with!"

"Don't care. This book of rules was erroneous, but I've corrected it. You should thank me," she said smartly.

Remembering what the Spectre Speeder did, she got an idea and stood still as Walker tried to grab her. His hands went through her so she smirked and went over to the present.

"I'll just be taking this and be on my way. Good day, Walker!"

She whistled as he kept trying to grab her, and she just ignored him, going back to the Spectre Speeder.

Well, at least she had an easy time for now. Though, he'll probably be pissed the next time they meet.

Started 8/28/08 –Complete 8/28/08

-GuestGhost: Julian's there for a side story that's important on how Danny is the way she is. I'm pretty sure the Latin's accurate because it's a quote. All Latin in here are quotes.


	5. Vanitas Vanitatum et Omnia Vanitas

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably.  
Warnings: Eh….  
Pairings: Danny/???

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy**_  
Chapter Five: Vanitas Vanitatum et Omnia Vanitas_

"Danny, I believe you need to see a professional," Lancer looked pointedly at her.

Danny looked blankly at him, "What?"

"I said I think you could benefit from seeing our school counselor, Ms. Spectra. If you don't go voluntarily, I will give you an order to do so."

"That'll show up on my record," she glared at him.

He sighed, "I know. That's why it's better for you to go voluntarily."

Danny frowned, but nodded. "Fine, I'll do it. I'm not happy about it, but you win this time, Lancer."

He shot her a triumphant smirk, leading her into Spectra's office.

_**A Half Hour Before**_

"Now Mr. Jeong, what seems to bothering you?" Spectra smiled cheerily, feeling the misery flow right off the boy.

"I…" Kwan hesitantly started off. He wasn't sure, but he thought talking to her would help with his problem. "You see, I'm in love with this girl. At first, I thought it was a crush, or maybe an infatuation. But I'm definitely sure. I'm in love with her."

"Then what's the problem? You should just suck it up and confess!" she smiled brightly.

Kwan sighed, "Okay, it's not a girl. His name is Danny Fenton, and he's been tutoring me for awhile. He's sweet, a genius, and sassy at times. He's really good at fighting; he kicks Dash's ass all the time when Dash tries to beat him up. I think he's straight, or I'm pretty sure he is. I don't know what to do."

Aha. Now that was tricky. She hadn't really dealt with this situation before.

"Hold on, sweetie! I just got to check on our little Danny!" she went to her cabinet and pulled out Danny Fenton's file. Her eyes shot wide open when she saw Danny was actually female, and quite pretty if the picture was any indication. No wonder this boy liked her, dressed as boy or not.

She smiled widely and put Danny's file back in, not bothering to read the rest.

"All I can say, Mr. Jeong, is to keep trying and confess soon. You never know! Someone might decide they like Danny as well, and take your chance away!" she said preppily.

Huh. That was actually good advice she gave. Usually, she'd spew some stupid thing out, or be sarcastic. She was sure she usually put down her patients, not help them.

Regardless, Kwan nodded at the advice, but still looked miserable. A side effect of being in her presence she was sure.

He left and someone quickly came to replace him. Dash Baxter, star quaterback of JV football, looked around worriedly before sitting down nervously before her desk.

"Ah, Mr. Baxter! I didn't expect you here. What can I do for you?"

The athlete glared at her. "I…I'm not sure on this. I might be attracted to someone I shouldn't be."

"Oh?"

Dash scowled, "His name is Danny Fenton and I beat up on him all the time. I really should stop, but I can't help bullying him."

Oh wow. Now this was a dilemma.

"Perhaps your bullying is a subconcious effect to be nearer to him. Or even to mask the feelings you may have for Mr. Fenton."

"I know! I just…I've bullied him since like forever. And I don't know why I pick on him the most when there are others who are more of a loser than he is. And then this year, I think I realize why. In the beginning of the year, I was going to beat him up again. Except this time, he fought back. Usually, he just runs away from me, but he couldn't this time because I had him.

"He beat me up and called me a stupid idiot. It hurt. A lot. It usually does sting if someone calls me something like that, because I have dyslexia and I struggle to understand some things. But it hurt worse when _Fenton_ called me it. I lashed out and actually managed to hit him. Lancer found us before it could get worse and dragged us to his office.

"In there, Lancer actually told him I had dyslexia. And Fenton looked at me weird, like he was measuring me up. He said a bunch of stuff I couldn't believe, like sticking up for me against some of our teachers, but also that me having dyslexia doesn't change him from fighting back if I kept coming at him. It made me feel normal to hear him say that, like he wasn't going to treat me different or special all of a sudden. It felt nice.

"But I keep trying to beat him up, half-heartedly at least, and he fights back. Like, it's become a usual thing between us, and there's just no real fight in it any more. Sometimes, it's even friendly."

Spectra smiled, nodding, even though inside she was like _'Oh my God. This is one weird love triangle going on. Not to mention the already established relationships between the three. Two best friends like a girl, who they think is a guy, and who pretends to be one. One friend bullies her and the other is already feeling deeply and acknowledging it.'_

"You need to search inside and see what you really feel. If you do like Danny, then it's alright."

"But he's a guy! And I'm not supposed to like guys!"

Spectra returned to smiling, "I'll just say that things don't always look like they seem."

Geez, wasn't this complicated. Kwan knew he liked Danny, and knew how deep his feelings ran. Dash liked Danny, but wasn't ready to completely admit to it. One already had deep feelings and the other not quite yet.

Damn, was her job getting harder to do.

Before she could shoo Dash out, the door opened and revealed Lancer and the girl everyone seemed to be talking about. She was even prettier than her photo, but it was mostly hidden under those baggy clothing and cap.

"Oh, Ms. Spectra! I didn't know you were with someone."

"Oh no. We were just finishing up. Was there anything else, Mr. Baxter?"

Dash's face turned red, and he glanced back and forth from Danny to her rapidly. "No, ma'am. I'm done."

"Alrighty then! If you need anything, even just to talk more, you're always welcome back!"

Dash nodded and fled the room, leaving behind the two adults and Danny.

"So what seems to be the problem here?" she said perkily.

"This really isn't my business, but I want Danny here to talk to you. There was an incident two years ago and…well, I'll just leave the two of you," Lancer explained, trying not to give away anything that didn't concern him.

He left and Danny grumpily sat in the chair. Spectra grinned. "Where do we start?"

"Where _do_ we start?' Danny almost sounded mocking, but Spectra caught the underlying bitterness.

"Let's start with the smaller problems and then move up?" Spectra leaned back in her chair and studied her new patient. There was something different about this one, other than her ability to make boys fall easily in love with her.

Danny sighed, "I'm female…I just don't like showing it. Everyone in school thinks I'm male, and I don't bother to correct them."

"Why do you dress like a male?" Spectra questioned, actually doing her job. Something about this girl…

Danny flinched, "That's a problem to talk about later."

"Aha, one of the bigger problems."

Danny nodded, "My father doesn't mind. It makes my mother worried and my sister is stuck agreeing with both my parents for various reasons. I…sometimes I want to tell everyone I'm female, and then there's another part of me that's…still scared."

"Scared of what?" Spectra asked gently, aware she was acting out of character for herself. Not that Danny knew that.

The girl frowned and bit her lip. "Another big problem for later," Spectra said softly.

Danny nodded again. "I also have a…condition."

"Can you talk about this condition?"

Danny hesitated, but nodded. "It's a neurological condition in my brain. It's a chemical imbalance that forces me to endure seizures. I take tryptophan, a nutrient supplement, for it. Milk can help sometimes, but the tryptophan is better at stopping the seizures."

"Oh dear, has the seizures happened within school?"

"No. I…I've managed to keep it to my home, but it's been getting worse."

You know, for a person who really didn't do her job, Spectra felt out of her depth and seriously wondering how she could solve this one.

"Well, I don't know about how to stop seizures, but I know I'm here for you to talk about how you feel about it."

And so started their sessions.

Spectra had tried to get Danny to start wearing more feminine clothing, but all she replied with was, "Oh man, now you're just acting just like Sam!"

They hadn't gotten to that one big problem that seemed to be Danny's main problem, but Danny was talking about how she felt about everything else. In the meantime, one of her other recurring patients was Kwan, who grudgingly returned to talk about his feelings to her. Dash hadn't returned, but she had a feeling he was going to return one last time pretty soon.

There were other people she saw as well. She actually did meet a couple students who really were gay, that Paulina chic, and some other students. They Spectra had fun messing with, though she wasn't as harsh with the gays. As much as she enjoyed their misery, she didn't think it was necessary to eff them over like everyone else.

However, her main concern was Danny, the one student Spectra seriously was trying to help.

"Penny," Danny timidly called. Spectra wouldn't admit to Bertrand that she let Danny Fenton call her, not only by her first name, but a shortened version of it as well.

"What's up, Danny?" Nor will she admit to reciprocating the privilege.

Danny nervously sat at her chair before bursting into tears, startling Spectra.

"Danny?"

"Two years ago, I was just an eighth grader. Sam and Tucker were still my only friends, and nobody recognized me. I was just a nobody, even more then than now. Here, in Casper High, everyone knows each other. Back in junior high, there was still more students going to school than here. No one would ever remember female Danny Fenton from then to now in Casper High.

"I'd always been told I was pretty. I liked being told that because someone noticed me, someone actually took time to compliment me. As you can tell, my confidence level was pretty low then. It's become worse now, ever since...

"I met Jack Madden, star quarterback of the Varsity Casper football team at the time. I was volunteering to help out the Varsity football team for community service. He was always very nice to me and complimented me. I grew a crush on him.

"It was obvious and it wasn't too long until he found out. He asked me out and I was so happy that I accepted. He was absolutely perfect with me…but then he began pushing about having sex. I was young and scared, so I told him to wait a little.

"And then, one time after practice, everyone was gone and it was just me and him. He was finishing up and I was waiting for him outside the locker room. He called for me inside and I hesitantly went in. I shouldn't have. He raped me.

"He told me afterwards that we should keep doing it because he had pictures of me from another time. It turns out that after a party, he'd drugged me and several of his friends were with him as they took photos of me. I was never raped before, he admitted, but there were several times they'd done that.

"My family wanted to sue him. I didn't want to make such a big deal out of it because I didn't want everyone to know. To know what he did to me or how stupid and naïve I was. I just…didn't want to face the humiliation and pity. And I didn't want to struggle through it through court. It was all just too much. So we settled on a quiet agreement. No court, no publicity, no records.

"His family gave a big sum of money to me to keep quiet, as well as destroying all the photos. If any photos were left, we would sue them. My father encourages me to dress up as male because he doesn't want it to happen again. He wants to keep me away from boys. My mother is worried that dressing up would stunt my healing. My sister worries about it happening again and becomes overprotective, but wants to help me get over…the incident.

"I want to get over it, be proud I'm female and go around feeling confident about myself. But I'm too scared of it happening again and trusting someone else. I don't want to. I hate letting people in. I just don't want someone to hurt me like that again. Jack Madden is why I hate jocks especially."

Spectra took a deep breath. Well, at least she knew the reason behind Danny's absolute dislike of jocks, recently barring Kwan Jeong. That was the easiest thing she could think about, because there was a lot of baggage put on the table that needed picking apart.

"Okay. I think we'll need to talk some more on this," Spectra told her.

Danny reluctantly nodded.

* * *

"Can I please persuade you to dress up on Fridays for me?" Julian prodded Danny with a stick.

She scowled and swatted it away, "I don't know…"

"Just Fridays. For our lunch dates. Please?"

"I guess. Ugh, of all the people! You, pervert, is the one who finally convinces me to dress femininely for once. Penny and Sam keep bugging me about it, but it has to be you!"

Julian grinned, "What can I say? I'm more charming."

She snorted and smacked his head. "Oh, shush you."

Indeed, the next Friday, Danny came dressed up in a red plaid skirt, a white dress shirt underneath a black vest. Her friends were definitely surprised. Pleased, but surprised.

"Yes! Finally!" Sam cheered.

Tucker smirked, "Am I allowed to gape or will you beat me up if I do?"

"I'll beat you up," Danny deadpanned. "Now excuse me. I have to talk to my student."

She saw Kwan with the other A-listers. She steeled her nerves and tapped Kwan's shoulder. The Asian jock turned and almost gaped, but hid it quickly, earning Danny's respect and gratitude.

"Kwan, can I speak to you?"

Kwan studied her closely for a few more seconds, eyes narrowed intensely. "_D-Danny_?"

"What –Fenton?!" Dash exclaimed, eyes widening and darting between Danny and Kwan.

"You look like that girl from the dance. The one with the carriage," Paulina scowled.

Danny scowled back, "That's because that was me." Then she grabbed Kwan's jacket and dragged him away, ignoring the gaping teens they left behind.

"That really was you at the dance? I mean, I thought she looked like a female you, but I thought you were male…"

"It's a long story, Kwan. Now, about our tutoring session after school. I can't be there, but if you really need the help, you can go to my house two hours after school, okay?"

Kwan nodded, "That's fine. I have a math quiz next Monday, so I really need the help."

"Alright…well, see you then," Danny then smiled hesitantly.

Since Danny's confession, she and Spectra talked about how Danny felt. How she felt about the teachers looking out for her, how she felt about how her family acted, how she felt about everyone, her friends, her social life, her future, etc.

Danny's only problem she hadn't talked about was her ghost powers, but that at least she would keep to herself. Besides, there was only one ghost she ended up fighting most of these days, and it was some strange shapeshifter that refused to be caught.

Jazz had been acting weird around her though, more so than usual. Danny was just attributing that to speech nerves, remembering Jazz had to speak to the whole school for Spirit Week.

Still, everyone was pretty miserable for Spirit Week. Even though Danny was talking to Spectra, and it was relieving too, she still felt depressed. It was weird.

Oh well. Time for her to meet with Spectra anyway. Well, after she met with Lancer for something.

* * *

Danny's emotions were absolutely delicious. The only problem was that Spectra felt just as horrible for enjoying feeding off the girl. She never felt guilty for enjoying other people's misery before, but having Danny confess things so personal to her made Spectra feel more for her. She felt…connnected in a way. It was unbelievable how guilty she felt for deceiving Danny.

And it was déjà vu all over again. Kwan exited, having just talked about Danny really being female and how confused he felt about it. Well, he was still in love, but he was confused why Danny would do such a thing. And now Dash returned, proving her right about how he'd return one last time before the end. Because she felt it, knew it. The end was coming for her.

"She's female," Dash said dazedly.

"Mmhm."

"You knew," Dash accused, glaring at her.

She shrugged, "Privacy issues. Not my secrets to tell."

"But _why_? I don't get it! And…I…I don't beat on girls. I never hit them, I would've never hit her if I knew!" Ah, there was that guilt.

"Again, her problems," Spectra said softly.

"I-I do like her. I knew that before I found out she was female, but…I don't think…After everything I've done to her, I don't think I have a chance."

"You never know, Mr. Baxter. You just never know."

Dash gritted his teeth, but nodded sharply. He left and soon Spectra had her office all to herself. The assembly would start soon, but she had time. There was still one more appointment she had to keep.

"Penny, you're here! I thought I was going to miss you because I had to talk to Lancer, and that ran late."

Spectra smiled sadly, "Danny, I'm a ghost."

Danny froze. "W-what?"

Spectra had figured sometime ago that her charge was the infamous Danny Phantom. She figured she owed Danny this much at least.

"You're Danny Phantom. I am a ghost who feeds on misery, my assistant Bertrand helps."

"Why are you telling me this?" Danny looked down, her long hair shadowing her face.

"You knew?" Spectra tilted her head to the side.

"Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew. I just didn't look at it closely or accepted it."

Spectra nodded, "Bertrand is going to help set off the sparklers, which will actually vaporise your sister. So where's that funny little thermos of yours so you can suck me in?"

Danny slowly rummaged around her backpack for it, "Here."

"Well, have at it!" Spectra tried being her usual peppy self.

"Can I still talk to you sometime?" Danny hesitantly asked.

"Whenever you need."

And then Spectra was sucked in.

Danny transformed, eyes flashing angrily and still feeling just a little betrayed. There was a ghost that needed a beating and a sister to be saved.

Started 8/29/08 –Completed 8/29/08


	6. Velle est Posse

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably.  
Warnings: Eh….  
Pairings: Danny/???

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Six: Velle est Posse_

After school, she met with Lancer again. Earlier, he had needed help with the assembly, but had requested she come back after school because he had another issue he wanted to ask her about. Spectra and Bertrand were still in the Fenton Thermos, so she wanted to hurry it up.

"Danny, you've done so well with Mr. Jeong…" Lancer started off.

She narrowed her eyes. "What is it?"

"I know you have bad blood with Mr. Baxster, but with this tentative truce you have with him, I was hoping you could tutor him as well."

"Jazz is already tutoring him. You don't need me," then Danny just got up and walked out on him.

Chasing after her, he stopped at his door and yelled, "Jazmine isn't patient enough to tutor someone like Mr. Baxter! At least think about it!" Seeing everyone watching, his face colored and he slammed his door shut. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! What am I going to do with that girl?"

Danny was already heading home grumpily. And after her talk with Lancer, she was in no mood to see Dash Baxter in her home with her sister at the table. She scowled at them and was about to stomp angrily into her room when Jazz stopped her.

"And there's your new tutor!" Jazz said cheerily, grabbing Danny and pushing her into the seat Jazz had been sitting in. "Toodles!"

Danny glared at her sister's retreating back, seeing Dash nervously sitting next to her through the corner of her eyes.

"Alright, Dash. Unlike my sister, you won't get slack from me. I'm going to give you the same speech I gave Kwan when I first started tutoring him –"

"You're tutoring Kwan?" he interrupted.

"Don't interrupt me," she glared. "Work hard. If you slack off, I'm ditching you. You mouth off to me, I'll ditch you. If you need help, that's what I'm here for. Don't ask to copy my homework. Don't ask me to _do_ your work. Got it?"

Dash nodded, eyes wide.

"Tell me what subjects that give you the hardest time."

Dash looked at her. She cocked an eyebrow and sighed.

He grimaced, "What I'm trying to say…is all of them."

"The hardest then."

"English, I guess. I can't read as well as I can speak. It used to be harder, but I took some special classes when I was younger…Math is okay. I can do some things, but most of it goes through my head. I'm terrible in Biology, but then again most people are. I'm actually pretty good at history."

"Dyslexics are known to have long term memory for some things, so you probably would be good at history. Long passages are good for you. Your short-term memory should kick in with words or phrases, and things like that. Let me see your notes."

Both eyebrows shot into her hairline when she saw his notes. "These are horrible. Your handwriting is hard to read and your organization is worse. Just…let me try to remember what I read about dyslexics."

"Did you…I mean did you look it up after…you found out about me?" Dash asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, so what?" she pursed her lips, eyes still skimming through his notes.

"Nothing. Just wondering," but he couldn't hide the light blush on his face. Fortunately, she was too absorbed in his notes.

"We're going to have to start reorganizing everything before we start any tutoring. Dash, do you have a planner?"

"No."

Danny sighed, rubbing her forehead, "I'll be back." She came back with an ordinary red simple day planner. She wrote his name inside and began writing.

"Try practicing writing all in uppercase letters. It might help to better understand your writing. Use this paper to do that while I'm working on your new planner. Dyslexics have trouble in organization, as you no doubt know, so I'll help you keep organize until you're used to doing it yourself."

Dash just nodded dumbly as he watched her work, seeing her write in the planner and then use different colored highlighters on different sections.

"I'll color code it to give you an easier time," she murmured to him, still working. "Your notes are poor, but…I want you to listen in class for keywords. Write them down and we'll research them later. Try to shorthand everything. I'll let you _look_ at my notes for a more detailed explanation. Now, what math class are you in?"

"Um, I'm in your geometry class…"

Her face turned slightly red, "_Right_. Your notes are actually good for that class, so keep to the format you're using there. Now the planner I'm giving you is not only your study schedule, but it also lists the activities and clubs you're part of, including football. Your study schedule includes telling you to do homework for a certain class at a certain time, if there is homework. Football practice, etc. also have a slotted time in the schedule. It's to help you study, do homework, and do certain things you have to. Still with me?"

"Yeah…" but Dash was threatening to be overwhelmed.

She slowed down, "It's okay, just tell me when I'm going too fast."

"I get what you're saying, but it's a little too much to take in at one time," he admitted.

"I'm sorry. Now, I'll look at your notes, Dash. I'll help you edit them so that they're more useful to you. I'll always help edit your notes, okay?"

He hesitantly smiled at her and was about to say something when the doorbell rang. "Huh, that must be Kwan," she said, surprising him.

She left and came back with his best friend, who looked entirely surprised to see him there.

He shrugged and grinned, "Lancer hired a different Fenton to tutor me."

Kwan grinned back, "Well, she's a slave driver so be careful, man."

"I can tell already," Dash said dryly.

Danny just huffed in annoyance and pushed Kwan into a chair. "Yeah, yeah. Just be glad I'm not tossing the both of you out."

"Ohh, we're hurt," both of the guys said in unison.

"Hmph. Shush or I'll start to jock mock."

"About that, Danny. Why do you hate jocks so much?" Kwan asked.

Danny quieted, growing more blank. "It's no reason."

Dash tried to change the subject, instinctively knowing that something was wrong. "You know, I'm having this party tomorrow. I was wondering if you wanted to go –!"

Danny stood up abruptly, glaring harshly at him. "Just because I'm tutoring you now doesn't mean I'd flock to you and your so-called stupid jock charms! I don't care about your stupid popularity or your stupid party!" She angrily tore out of the kitchen and up the stairs, leaving behind two stupefied boys.

"What's going on?" Jazz stuck her head into the kitchen.

"I, uh, invited your sister to my party and she kind of freaked out," Dash was still in shock.

Jazz came in all the way into the kitchen, glaring. "And why would you do that?"

Dash held up his hands, "I just thought since she was my tutor now, I should try to get to know her and try to bridge the gap. I mean, I know I was mean to her before, so I thought I could invite her to help start things over."

Jazz sighed, "Oh…well, look. Danny has her reasons why she's a little frontal with jocks. Don't ask her why, she'll tell you if she wants to. She'll go to your party; I'll find a way to make her come."

"Okay then," Dash agreed timidly.

And while they were talking, Danny was getting rid of the ghosts in the Fenton Thermos.

* * *

Indeed, somehow Jazz got Danny to come to the party. She was dressed in her usual boy clothes though, minus her cap. Both Dash and Kwan saw her glaring at everyone from her spot in the corner of his living room, looking like she was chugging down beer, not punch.

"You made it, Danny!" Kwan grinned.

She scowled at him, "I'll only be here for a short while. What's up with the geek wear? I thought you popular crowd are too good to wear clothes like that."

"Uh, well, I didn't have enough money to buy these new expensive sweats, so I changed the style to geek sheik," Dash explained with a shrug.

Surprisingly to them, Danny didn't take offense and instead took another gulp of her drink. "I gotta go. Where's your bathroom?"

"Upstairs, down the hall."

She nodded and gave them a backwards wave as she trotted away. Time passed and they got a little worried. Deciding to check up on her, they passed by Dash's room when they heard a crash. They bolted inside and saw Danny sitting limply against Dash's now cracked wall, and Dash's mutated computer floating in the air and cackling, surrounded by other glowing objects.

"Crap, what the hell is going on?!" Dash screamed as he and Kwan darted towards Danny and tried to drag her away.

Then his computer started _talking_. "I am Technus! Master of all things technology!"

"The hell with this," Kwan muttered and put on a burst of speed, trying to make it to the door with Danny between he and Dash. Unfortunately, Technus shoved both boys out the door at the same time as taking Danny from them. The door shut in their faces and they banged against it, trying to get in. They heard several crashes before the door opened suddenly, and they saw Danny standing in the midst of a mess, Dash's computer defeated and Technus gone.

"What happened?" Kwan gaped.

Danny looked sheepish, "Um, Phantom came and beat that weirdo up. They're both gone now."

They just stared at her.

* * *

Danny wasn't sure if they had bought the whole Phantom came and defeated Technus thing, but she sure hoped they did. As it was, she worried they were suspicious of her. Even thinking that they're jocks and therefore stupid mantra wasn't working.

So she carefully avoided them unless it was time tutor them. She didn't have the time or resources to tutor them separately, so after school, all three went to her house and she taught and they learned. She enlisted Dash's help on helping Kwan with history, and she enlisted Kwan's help on helping Dash with Biology.

And then trouble came in the form of a little puppy. A _ghost_ puppy.

"I don't know what to call you. You don't have a name tag. So I'm dubbing you Scooby, got it?" Danny stared seriously at the happy puppy.

It yelped and pounced away. Danny groaned and chased after it.

"Scooby, don't go in there!"

But it was too late. Scooby had gone into Axion Labs and so Danny had to follow it. The puppy kept growing until it was a monstrous dog, and Danny had to chase it all over the lab, thereby destroying it.

When she finally caught it, she winced at the damage all around her and the gaping group of people

"Um, don't mind us. We're just your average ghostly watchdog…and trainer," she laughed weakly. She waved goodbye quickly and hightailed it out.

The next day, she was horrified to find that not only had Valerie Gray's father been fired from his job as head of security, but Kwan's father was also under evaluation because he'd _designed_ the security detail. She and her friends winced together when they saw both Valerie and Kwan be rebuffed by their former friends. Kwan looked pleadingly at Dash, who looked hesitant before looking apologetic.

Kwan looked angry and stormed off, while Valerie moved to sit at a table by herself.

"Wow, harsh. I think they need better friends," Sam commented.

Tucker nodded determinedly, gazing fondly at Valerie. "Like us," he said firmly, before getting up to walk over to her.

Both Danny and Sam snorted. "Look, Sam. I'm going after Kwan to see if he's alright, okay?"

"Sure, sure. I'll wait here for lover boy to come back from his own rejection. I'll see you later."

Danny waved and then walked out of the cafeteria, in search of her…_sort of_ friend. She spotted him glowering at one of the outside tables. Slipping beside him, she sat on the table with him, ready to talk.

"Hey."

Kwan glanced at her, his face softening from its thunderous look.

"Hey."

"So…your dad's not fired, is he?"

"No. Valerie's father is, but they're sort of giving him a second chance. My old man is only under evaluation, but that means he's on suspension and no money coming in. We're going to be tight for a while. I mean I still have my grades going up, football…and you! So not everything's bad."

Danny coughed and looked away, rubbing the back of her head embarrassedly. She patted his shoulder awkwardly, "Uh, yeah. That's right."

Still, it made Kwan's lips quirk upward.

* * *

Danny was surprised the next day at lunch when Kwan came to her table, holding his tray and grinning sheepishly.

"You know, I was thinking it was about time I started hanging out with you," he gave a small smile, waving at the empty seat next to Danny questionably.

Danny gave a crooked smile, "I suppose a jock can't hurt our reps this one time, right guys?"

Sam and Tucker snickered, but shook their heads. Kwan sat down and they all started to talk, getting comfortable around him.

"Hey, I was hoping I could sell my ticket to the Humpty Dumpty concert and just hang out with you. I mean, there's really no point in me going," Kwan said to Danny.

"Not quite so fast, Kwan," Sam smirked. "I bought Valerie's tickets, so all three of us are going to that concert. Keep yours and come with us."

"Sounds like a plan," Kwan agreed.

Both Danny and Tucker nodded as well.

Oh, it felt great to sit next to the A-crowd and enjoy the concert, while they sat miserably because they were sitting next to losers. The best part of the concert was switching seats with Sam and sitting next to Danny, rocking out and having a blast with her. He was so absorbed in Danny and the fun he was having that he didn't notice the infrequent glares Dash sent him.

Started 8/29/08 –Completed 8/30/08


	7. Vox Humana

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably.  
Warnings: Eh….  
Pairings: Danny/???

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Seven: Vox Humana_

"Damn! I didn't want to be harassed!" Danny yelled, trying to push Klemper off. They struggled for a couple of minutes before Danny lashed out with her foot and kicked him away.

"Watch out!" Sam warned as Klemper began to use his ice powers. Danny quickly shot an ecto-blast at him, blasting him through a door. She quickly shut it and melded it shut.

"Whew! Man, he doesn't give up, does he?" Tucker commented.

"Like a bunch of other ghosts I know," Danny muttered.

"These Fenton Fones look horrible, but they make great wireless earphones," Tucker said as he cheered and turned on the Fenton Fones to his PDA. He began to sing along to it, "Ember, you will remember!"

Both Danny and Sam winced and clutched their ears.

"I think they look great as techno Goth earrings," Sam muttered.

Danny took control of the wheel and began to drive back.

The next day at school, they were surrounded by Ember.

"A little too much?" Sam sneered.

Danny shrugged and began humming the song. Sam stared at her in horror. "Danny, don't tell me you too?!"

"Well, it _is_ catchy. It lacks talent in lyrics, but whatever. And she's entirely too pop for her style."

"Hey, Kwan's coming over here," Tucker pointed out to them.

"We're going to have to be more careful now that Kwan is hanging out with us, especially if we want to keep Danny's secret a secret," Sam muttered to the other two quickly before Kwan was there.

"Isn't this crazy? She's everywhere," Kwan said to them.

Sam smirked and said dryly, "I'm surprised you're not joining their mindless ranks."

He grinned, "Ouch. But nah, I'm a little preoccupied with something else," he glanced over quickly to Danny, but looked away just as quickly. Sam bit her lip. No way…

"Well, welcome to the free-thinking individuality group," Sam said, filing away her thoughts for later.

* * *

"I can't believe Ember's the ghost," Danny twitched, heading to the school's theatre.

"Ready, Christine?" Mason Lombardy greeted her as soon as she entered.

"As ever, Phantom," she returned, dropping off her bag and then meeting with the others.

"Alright, from the top!" Drama teacher and director of Casper High's rendition of Phantom of the Opera yelled.

Unknown to Danny, Ember watched the practice, smirking. "The infamous Danny Phantom can sing, huh? This'll be interesting. Maybe I'll make an exception to the no duet rule."

The practice finished when Danny was interrupted as she was about to go home.

"I'm Drew Sharpner and can I say what a wonderful performance that was?" a man waiting at the door smiled widely at her.

Danny was confused, but thanked him anyway.

"As you can see, Miss Fenton, Ember McClain has become insanely popular. I'll say she has no talent. To give her a bit of competition, I was wondering if I could be your manager and show the world real talent?"

"Woah. Um, I'm flattered and all, but I don't think I'm idol material."

"Nonsense!" Drew exclaimed. "You're perfect. You'll be able to combat the mindless rave Ember incites."

It wouldn't hurt to try to fight Ember this way. It was worth a try.

"Alright, I guess."

"Brilliant. Now may I take you out to eat while we discuss details?"

* * *

"Hurry it up and wait.  
So close, but so far away.  
Everything you've dreamed up, close enough for you to taste, but you just can't touch," Danny sang.

The song was just released in the beginning of the week, actually driving back the mindless haze Ember was inducing. Sam cheered her on, Tucker looked at her in awe, but somehow best yet was Kwan always quietly supporting her.

Things were going so well that she really didn't expect Ember to underhandedly sneak up on her. The last thing she saw was Ember aiming an attack towards her.

The ghost, in turn, almost slid to her knees. She had spent everything she had left in that attack against Phantom. Ember hadn't expected how powerful a response the halfa would get from the people, making Ember lose her power bit by bit.

But now, that wasn't going to be a problem.

Grabbing Phantom, Ember disappeared.

* * *

Drew was confused when Danny asked if she could do a duet with Ember.

"Sure, if you really want to. But I thought the goal was to beat Ember at her own game?"

"Ember's nice," Danny muttered, dazedly walking away from him. He narrowed his eyes. Something wasn't right. Looking up her emergency contact details, he skipped her parents and went to her friends. Teenagers typically told their friends their secrets, not their parents.

After reaching them, he asked for a meeting at the local hang out joint in town, the Nasty Burger. There, he told her three friends what had happened. The Asian kid didn't look like he knew anything, but the Goth girl and tech guy did.

"Spill," he glared at those two.

"Ember's a ghost. She probably has Danny under her mind control like she has everyone else. She probably wants to use Danny to lure everyone back to her and become more powerful," Sam said, leaving out any of Danny's own involvement with ghosts.

Kwan and Danny's manager gaped at her, but she shrugged. "It's the truth."

Tucker began muttering Ember's song again.

Sam huffed in annoyance, "We'll save Danny, but first we have to deprogram him. And go to school."

Unfortunately, things didn't go their way. For one, Danny didn't appear at school at all. Two, the entire school rampaged out when they learned Ember was giving away free tickets to that midnight's joint concert between her and Danny. Then third, they had to strap Tucker down. And just when they're about to leave, Lancer caught her and Kwan sneaking out.

At least, Drew was able to break them out.

At Bookies' Music Mega Store, Ember was throwing tickets left and right to the crowd. Danny was standing placidly next to her, smiling blankly at the crowd. The three made it in time to hear Ember yell, "Scream my name!"

Drew stayed in the crowd while Kwan and Sam moved forward.

"Kwan, wear these. Ember will try to take over your mind," Sam said as she handed the jock her Fenton Fones. He took them, still in disbelief over the whole thing. They split, Kwan to where Ember and Danny was while Sam slipped off to climb onto the huge Ember billboard.

"Hey, it's Ember McLame!" Sam yelled, hanging onto the billboard after squiggling onto its face.

Ember sneered, "Oh great. A critic."

"Make that two!" Drew yelled, standing in the middle of the crowd with a poster of Ember. He began tearing it into pieces.

Ember's eyes flashed, "Why you little…"

Kwan used that moment as an opportunity to pull back Danny into his arms and began running off with her. Ember screeched and aimed her guitar towards him. She struck a chord and the blast shoved them both forward. Kwan tried to cushion Danny and protect her from the fall. Going into a roll, using a method he'd learned from football, he pushed himself to his feet and began running through the nearest door. Running up the stairs, he realized it led to the roof. He huffed tiredly, dropping to his knees for rest, but still holding onto Danny.

"Hey, dipstick. You've got my girl," Ember smirked, phasing through the roof.

Kwan sucked in a harsh breath. He was skeptical before, but now…

"Let's start our first duet, Danny!" Ember switched her guitar's setting and blasted it towards Danny. Danny's eyes flashed green and then went back to normal. Seeing Kwan, Danny scowled and slid into a traditional Muay Thai fighting stance.

Kwan's eyes widened and he gulped. Danny charged forward, and the hands Kwan had been holding up in defense quickly lowered as he focused all he had at dodging Danny's vicious blows. He'd seen her kick Dash's ass before, but that was child's play compared to her brutality now. Suddenly, helicopters and armored trucks started appearing.

Ember sneered, "Looks like we have to ditch, baby doll," and she stopped Danny and they disappeared, leaving Kwan on the roof alone.

* * *

Hell, how did Lancer get them to approve a town teenage house arrest? This mass grounding act sucked.

And that was just one of many things Kwan brooded about. That is, until Sam knocked on his window.

"Why're you here, Sam?" Oh yeah he was pouting.

She rolled her eyes. "'Cause we've got saving to do. First, we have to pick up Tuck," she winced. Kwan shared that wince; they'd forgotten about Tucker and left him in school. Kwan'd also forgotten that he hung out with Danny and her group now, and apparently they were used to breaking rules. Hence, sneaking out, etc. etc.

Kwan climbed out of his window and followed her. They got Tucker and moved on to the concert. They caught a glimpse of the inside, seeing Danny and Ember warming up a little to the crowd.

"Fan service! Fan service!" the crowd yelled.

Ember smirked and grabbed a hold of Danny, kissing her soundly on the lips. The audience screamed.

"Ah, the wonders of fan service," Ember said as she held onto Danny and felt herself become more powerful with every scream. It seemed screaming gave her almost as much power as fans screaming her name. Even better, when the crowd yelled out their names, she got power from them not only screaming her name but also from them screaming Danny's, by Ember holding onto the girl and feeling the power the crowd gave the halfa (similar to what they do for Ember) and having it transfer to her by touch.

The three sneaking teens glared, though Tucker had to hold back Sam and Kwan from launching themselves through the crowd and dashing towards the stage.

The stadium had been already filled up by the time they got there, but they needed to sneak into the back. Not having Danny's ghost powers to help, Sam had to rely on her lock picking skills.

"Where'd you learn to pick locks?" Tucker asked.

"From Danny," she answered nonchalantly.

A moment.

"Where did _she_ learn to pick locks?!" both boys asked.

Sam didn't have a chance to answer because the door swung open.

"Let's go."

They went in, interrupting Ember tuning her guitar and Danny sitting idly to her side, apparently having returned from their pre-concert warm up.

"Alright, ghost chick! Hand over Danny and you won't get hurt!" Tucker cried out.

Everyone else in the room stared at him. He blushed and hid behind Sam.

"Alright, Ember. What he said," Kwan said, much cooler than Tucker.

"I said no, dipstick," Ember mocked.

Kwan narrowed his eyes, clenching his hands into fists. "And I said, _let her go_."

Ember laughed, "This is rich! The disptick likes my girl. Well, baby doll, why don't you distract lover boy over there?" Ember said and Danny turned to Kwan, smiling adoringly.

Everything in Kwan stopped functioning and he stared.

"Oh no you don't!" Sam cried out, but she was stopped when Dash entered in full security uniform.

"Security, go get 'em."

And while Danny distracted Kwan, Sam and Tucker dealt with Dash.

* * *

Okay, Kwan admitted he liked Danny, but he didn't want her like this. Though her wrapping her arms around his neck and her face looming closer to his was pleasantly distracting.

Pushing her away roughly, Danny stumbled and looked at him hurt. "What's wrong, Kwan? I thought you liked me."

Kwan had to break the spell somehow. Maybe to break the spell, he had to break her heart.

"I never liked you. I was only using you to bring my grades up and laugh at you behind your back."

Sam and Tucker stopped and gaped, looking slightly hurt, but Kwan looked at them and shook his head discreetly, nodding towards Danny.

Her eyes flashed green angrily and then she shook her heard harshly, grabbing at her head. Her eyes watered and she glared at him betrayed and angry.

"I-I _hate_ you," she hissed.

She began sobbing, sliding to the ground. Her sobs grew less and then she looked at Kwan calmly, even though she really looked a mess.

"I didn't do anything crazy while I was under Ember's spell, did I?"

"I'll tell you everything later. I promise," Kwan said with apologetic eyes.

Danny nodded and then glanced meaningfully at Sam and Tucker. Their eyes widened, but they tackled Dash and knocked him out.

"I'm guessing you know about Ember now. You might as well know about this," and then Danny transformed.

Phantom nodded at him, clenched her jaw, and picked up the Fenton Thermos on her way to the stage.

Kwan gaped. Danny Fenton…Danny Phantom?! Oh, he felt more stupid at that revelation than all the times he failed in school combined.

* * *

First jocks and now ghosts? How _stupid_ was she? Was she that _weak_?

She felt angry. She felt hurt. She felt _betrayed_.

Danny knew, at the very least, Kwan had said something hurtful to her. But more than that, she was tired of being used. With Aragon, she was at least semi-aware. She couldn't stop herself, and she probably would've been angry with him as well afterwards, if it weren't for the fact the spell of the amulet's effects were still wearing off and she was upset that her wonderful evening was a product of manipulation. And also even though she was enjoying herself, she had to cut it short. She didn't know his motives, but he hadn't seemed like he wanted to hurt her intentionally.

Spectra had gotten close to her. But Danny had let her. In a way, she should've known about Spectra. And at least, Spectra hadn't meant to hurt her and gave herself up in the end.

But she didn't remember a thing under Ember's spell. Danny knew the ghost had wanted her out of the way and found this all amusing. Danny never confided in Ember, didn't know Ember and Ember didn't know her.

She was tired of being hurt and used.

"Hey, _baby doll_. You need to look out," Danny said coldly. And then she was darting forward, reaching Ember before the singer could react. Grabbing her arm, Danny viciously twisted it and swung Ember in a full circle, letting go so that she flew out of her grip and crashed through the room where the others were.

Danny followed soon after, appearing next to the sound console. Sneering, Danny pressed a button.

"What stops chanting? Making the crowd's ears hurt," and then Danny pressed and slid a couple more buttons. A horrible screech filled the arena, forcing everyone but Danny and Ember to clutch their ears.

But the chanting stopped.

Ember shakily got to her feet, power draining as the effects of the chanting stopping hit her.

"Heh, y-you still owe me a duet, Phantom," Ember breathed out unsteadily.

Danny icily glared at her, too hurt and angry to have any mercy at that moment. She was just tired of it all.

Walking closer, Danny's hand shot forward and clutched Ember's top, glaring into her eyes. Danny threw her into the air and kicked her, Ember ending up back onto the stage, body rolling limply.

Danny walked over to the ghost calmly and uncapped the Fenton Thermos.

"Time to go," she murmured.

Ember slowly smiled apologetically.

She was sucked in and Danny capped the thermos, sighing in relief.

"It's Phantom! She saved us again!"

Head snapping to the side, she realized the entire crowd was there and erupting into cheers. Turning red, Danny turned and ran backstage, forgetting her ghost powers in her embarrassment.

"Ah, crud. I didn't even really save them," Danny said as she ran passed the others and finally remembered she could fly.

In the shadows, Drew Sharpner watched curiously and with mild awe. He always knew Danny was more special than she let on.

* * *

"These scores are the worst in Casper High's history. Every single one of you failed," Lancer scowled.

"However," Principal Ishiyama interrupted, "One student scored perfectly, another scored at ninety percent, and another scored above the percentile. Congratulations Tucker Foley, Kwan Jeong, and Danny Fenton. You three are excused for today's cramtastic session. Mr. Jeong, if you wished to stay and see if you can score higher, you may."

"Ah, no thanks, Principal Ishiyama. My head hurts from all that studying. I'll pass," Kwan said sheepishly.

Danny rolled her eyes and smacked Kwan's head.

"Then you three may be dismissed."

Danny waved the other two off as she left, having an appointment to make to. Seeing Drew, she mock-saluted. Drew returned it.

"So…you're sure?" he sighed.

"Yeah…being a singer just doesn't fit my schedule right now," Danny gave a small smile.

"Maybe in the future," he said optimistically.

She shrugged, "You never know."

"I'll see you around, Danny."

"Yeah, around."

Started 8/31/08 –Completed 8/31/08


	8. Virginibus Puerisque

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably.  
Warnings: Eh….  
Pairings: Danny/???

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Eight: Virginibus Puerisque_

"Right, Dash. You almost had it. You must've done a step wrong along the way and that's what messed up your answer," Danny said, looking over Dash's geometry.

Kwan glared at Dash, making the blond squirm. Danny glanced between the two and shook her head.

"If you two don't stop, I'll declare both of you slacking off. And you slack off, I ditch," she frowned.

Unfortunately, the two were busy exchanging glares and didn't hear her. Danny glared and gritted her teeth, getting up and leaving them behind. Jazz was fixing herself a sandwich when the two finally realized Danny was gone.

"Where'd she go?!" Dash panicked.

Jazz raised an eyebrow, "You two were busy glaring when she said if you two didn't stop, she'd declare both of you slacking on your duties and she'd leave. She left."

"B-but, I have a stupid English test tomorrow! It's twenty five percent of my grade!" Dash yelled.

Kwan winced, "I have a Math test tomorrow."

Jazz shrugged, "Too bad. Good luck finding her. And _convincing _her to help. You remember her rules. Slack and no mercy."

"Oh great! I'm doomed!" Dash pulled at his hair.

Kwan felt miserable.

* * *

Dash scowled as he searched the park for his wayward tutor. He wasn't just brooding about his upcoming downward spiral of grades if Danny didn't come back, but also because he'd remembered the end of Ember's concert.

Who knew that chick was a ghost? For the past year and a half, ghosts were becoming common around Amity Park and he would think he'd recognize one by now.

But the fact she had Danny under her spell…

Dash was too, but he'd struggled under it. There were times where he was totally aware of what was going on and could stop himself, but then there were times where he couldn't fight it.

He'd fought against it tooth and nail when he saw Danny wrapping herself around Kwan and seemed like she was about to kiss his ex-best friend. He'd broken out to see Kwan push Danny away and say those words. He saw Danny freak out and then become freakishly calm.

But the image of Danny being so close to Kwan was burned into his mind.

And he definitely couldn't forget with Kwan walking right next to him, helping to look for Danny.

As it was, they never did find Danny that day. And when they saw her the next day at school, she ignored both of them and nothing they said or did would make her acknowledge they were there. Even when Kwan hung out with them, Sam and Tucker uncertainly talked with him, not knowing what was going on but knowing that Danny was refusing to talk to their Asian friend.

"So, what are you guys doing this weekend?" Kwan asked.

"Well, Saturday I have to go with my parents to visit some family and we won't be back until Sunday night," Sam said, glancing at Danny, who was looking at anywhere but Kwan and apathectically drinking her juice.

"My dad's taking me to a technology convention this weekend. The latest tech is going to be displayed!" Tucker beamed happily.

Both Kwan and Sam laughed, but Danny continued to gaze away.

"What…what about you, Danny?" Kwan asked hesitantly.

"I've got to go Sam, Tuck. I forgot there was somewhere I had to be. I'll see you guys later," Danny said, ignoring Kwan and standing abruptly. She left them in awkward silence.

"Dude, what did you do?" Tucker winced.

Kwan sighed, "Dash and I sort of had a silent fight and we wouldn't stop when Danny asked us to. We didn't even hear her. She got angry and left us. She's refused to talk to us at all. I already know I'll fail the geo test next period without her helping me out. It's my fault though. Mine and Dash. I just feel bad that we pissed her off so much."

"Ouch," both Sam and Tucker said.

"Look at it this way. Pissing off Danny means she's ignoring you. Danny ignoring you means you don't get any chances to piss her even more off. That gives her time to cool off and then be easier to approach," Tucker explained.

"Yeah, I mean, some people are pissed off at you and yet they still pay attention to you. Any little thing could set them off and make them more angry, exacerbate things," Sam added.

Kwan blinked, "What does exarcerbate mean?"

"To make things worse," she shrugged.

"Right."

Correctly guessed, both he and Dash failed both of their respective tests. Confused, Lancer confronted them about their abysmal grades.

"What in Shakespeare's name happened? I thought Miss Fenton was tutoring you two."

Both boys winced. Kwan took the initiative and explained, "Basically, Dash and I fought, Danny called us slackers, and then she stormed off. She won't even look at us."

Lancer winced with them, "I see. It'll be Dante's Inferno trying to get her to listen to you once she's made up her mind to hold a grudge. In the mean time, I'll need you two to stay after school and study. You'll be making up these tests, and get better grades."

They both tried to interrupt, but Lancer cut them off. "No buts."

* * *

They tried to understand the material on their own, but it was like pulling teeth. Lancer helped when he could, but the two couldn't help being miserable at their predicament. They couldn't stop brooding over Danny being angry at them. And Lancer's explanations would've done anyone competent some good, but mostly the two jocks had trouble understanding him. Danny was good at making everything seem easy, and translating it to laymen terms for them.

Lancer sighed, "I'll be back. I'm going to go get some coffee."

Kwan glanced at Lancer's computer when the overweight teacher had left. He remembered Tucker saying the three of them would be going online after school to play Doom. Standing up, he looked around for any sign of Lancer and seeing none, approached the computer uneasily.

"What are you doing?" Dash scowled from behind him.

"None of your business," Kwan muttered testily.

But Dash was already following him, so Kwan shrugged it off. Quickly logging on, he saw the three already in the game and battling some weird techno monster.

**Danny?** He typed in.

There was a pause before he got an answer.

**Kwan? What are you doing chatting? Aren't you supposed to be studying?**

Ow. He could definitely hear an undertone of bite in there, but there was also a hint of disappointment that he wasn't doing what he was supposed to do –studying.

"Indeed, Mr. Jeong. Aren't you supposed to be studying?" Lancer's voice cut in.

They whirled around to face Lancer, looking guilty and apologetic at the same time. Lancer rolled his eyes.

"Alright, alright. Go grovel at her feet. Maybe afterwards, you two can actually get some work done."

Lancer left again, leaving the two to look back at the screen. Kwan typed in what he was going to before Lancer interrupted.

**We were studying, but we're…kind of moping. About upsetting you. **

It took awhile for her to answer back, considering she was flying around, busy shooting blasts at the techno monster that Kwan finally recognized from the gang's files as Technus.

Ignoring the issue, she addressed, **We?**

**Dash is right beside me.**

**Hmph. Finally sucking it up and working together, are you?**

**Um, not quite –**

Just then, Dash seized the keyboard from him and started typing. Kwan tried getting it back, but Dash determinedly blocked him.

**Yo, Danny! How are you doing all that? Flying and shooting from your hands?**

…**Dash? **

**Yah.**

**It's 'yeah', Dash. And the, uh, flying and shooting is, uh…part of the game. **

Clearly, Kwan could see Danny was using her ghost powers. The two boys struggled for the keyboard until Kwan managed to yank it towards him.

**Listen, Danny. We're really sorry. Please forgive us. **

Kwan did _not _know why he was speaking for Dash. The jerk could do it for himself.

**Fine. But I want to talk to you both later. **_**After**_** I finish this and after you two finish up at school. Do better on your tests!!! And listen to Lancer!**

**Will do. **

Kwan turned it off and both he and Dash quietly sought out Lancer, who was peacefully enjoying his coffee just outside the classroom.

"Mr. Lancer, we're done groveling. Will you help us?"

Lancer shook his bald head in amusement, but smiled. "Alright, let's get crackin'."

Though it took more work to try to understand what Lancer was trying to explain, the two were able to pull off solid B's on their tests. Of course, that was sort of expected. The only times they ever got A's was when Danny tortured them and worked them overtime.

Walking to certain doom, the two made it to Fenton Works at exactly five. Danny was waiting for them outside where she leaned against her front steps, still dressed up as a boy. Her face was scowling and boded no good for either of them.

When they finally reached her, they weren't ready for Danny to push off from where she was leaning, darting towards Dash and grabbing his arm. Twisting it behind his back, she helped the rest of his body twist with him by using one arm to grab a hold of his legs and flip him, Dash landing roughly on his back.

"Damn, it's been awhile since I've seen you kick Dash's ass," Kwan stared.

He regretfully wished he hadn't said anything when Danny turned her attention to him, turning quickly and landing her fist into his stomach, dropping to her hands and swiping his feet from underneath him with one leg sweep. He landed right beside Dash, groaning in pain.

"Now –we're even," Danny glared. "But if you ever, _ever_ break my rules again, I don't care who you are. There aren't any third chances."

She huffed and strode up her steps, disappearing into the house and leaving the two on the ground in pain.

"Danny," Kwan croaked out, sure that she was probably right behind that door, listening to them happily. "Would you still have beat me up if I hadn't of said anything?"

Danny's head popped out from the crack of the opened door. "Of course," she said cheerily. "I'd planned to, but you talking just prompted me and reminded me of you, making me stop reveling in Dash's pain."

The door closed again.

"Disciplinarian," Kwan groaned.

"Dominatrix," Dash grumbled.

They heard giggling from inside.

* * *

"Really? Wow, Technus sounds more of a loser than before. At least he's stuck in that game," Kwan said.

Danny yawned, "He's annoying alright. But not as annoying as the Box Ghost."

Kwan winced, "Right. That dude. But seriously, doesn't he get tired of all that? I mean, it's the same 'Beware! I am the Box Ghost!'"

She laughed, "He'll never stop that. And it's more like 'BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST!' More emphasis, you see?"

This time they both laughed. Their laughter slowing down, they shared quiet for a moment. They were sharing a meal at the Nasty Burger, catching up and waiting for Sam and Tucker to arrive.

"There's a carnival coming soon? You going?" Kwan asked uncertainly.

Danny stretched and leaned back. "Don't know. Maybe. Sam and Tucker might want to come, so I'll probably go."

"Sam and Tucker. Right.

Kwan uncomfortably sat there as Danny snoozed a bit, relieved when Sam arrived, followed soon after by Tucker. Agreeably, the two agreed that they'd like to go to the carnival as well, so they discussed when they would go.

They ended up going the next day, on opening night. They walked around, played some of the games, and went and visited some of the attractions. The four of them went on the rollercoaster rides, Danny, Kwan, and Tucker enjoying those the most.

It was actually a really fun time, when disaster finally struck.

"Hey, if it isn't Fentonia, the techno geek, the Goth geek, and the new geek!" Craig Harf pointed the group out, one of the new A-listers to join ever since Kwan and Valerie were kicked out.

"And if it isn't Jenny Craig Barf," Danny returned in a bored voice, distastefully eyeing Dash, who stood quietly outside the group. Ever since she'd started tutoring him, their strange truce became a bit more solid, their fighting and his harassment stopping. To be honest, it all stopped when Dash found out she was female, but she didn't want to acknowledge that fact. Besides, both incidents happened around the same time.

Still, Dash never did anything to stand up for Danny or the others, even though he was still the head of the pack.

Popular star football jock, Dash Baxster, would never stoop so low as to defend a geek.

Danny sneered and surreptiously slid into a fighting stance when Craig got angry at the comment. She was so focused on Craig that she didn't notice her ghost sense go off, and suddenly someone was right next to her, gently wrapping a scarf around her neck and tying it loosely.

"Hey man, back off the lady," a pale blond teen snarled at Craig.

She glanced at him and wondered why she wasn't taking off the scarf and beating up both Craig and this new guy.

* * *

Johnny 13 eagerly searched around for the face he'd seen back at that lab. Of course, he knew that was the Ghost Gal everyone talked about, but she was pretty and it wouldn't hurt to put Kitty into a body like that. Though it was a little weird because even though Phantom was pretty, Johnny couldn't help but see her like a sister. Reminded him of his when he was still alive, even dressing like a boy.

He finally saw her with the group she hung out with, confronting another group with a boy that looked ready to fight her. Now that wasn't good…

Interrupting, Johnny easily slipped the scarf around her neck, in the motion that he was just kindly trying to keep her warm, tying it loosely and tucking in the ends into her sweater. His actions caught her alerted friends, the Asian boy more than a little angry. Ah, a jealous one.

And if his eyes were seeing right, he saw another jealous punk over with the other group, a blond kid with a letterman jacket.

Smirking, he pulled her closer to his side, cushioning her head against his shoulder.

"Hey punk, if I were you, I'd look out," Johnny said, motioning to Shadow to make its move.

It appeared and suddenly there was mass panic. He knew Danny wanted to slip away and transform, but he wouldn't let her off that easy. He had Shadow terrorize quickly and then disappear even faster, making it impossible for Danny to catch it now.

"Don't worry, guys. I've got your girl. I'll take her home quick and safely," Johnny grinned at them, before ushering Danny off. He didn't want to take any chances they'd follow and ruin his plans.

* * *

Dash was seeing red. He didn't want Craig to bother Danny, didn't want to see Kwan close to her, and he definitely didn't like seeing some stranger come out of nowhere and take Danny away.

He hadn't bothered her for a long time, starting when he'd realize how he really felt for her, even when he'd thought Danny was a boy. Everything was half-hearted –the insults, the fights, coming after her all the time. Then he found out Danny was really female and it made everything better because it made him hopeful. So hopeful that he stopped acting up around her. And then she was tutoring him, and that was great because it gave Dash a chance to show her a different side to him, a side that wasn't the big, dumb jock.

Now here he was, things still not better, and getting angrier the more he watched this guy walk away with Danny.

He was angry Craig dared to hurt Danny and push Dash's authority. And he was angry that he always kept quiet.

There were times nowadays where he halfheartedly insulted Danny, but only in front of the other popular people. He never tried to beat her up, though he knew Danny would actually be the one to beat him up. He couldn't bully Kwan because Kwan had once been his best friend and Dash still thought of him like that, and because Dash was ashamed of treating Kwan cruelly after everything. He wouldn't dare pick on Manson or Foley, because they were Danny and Kwan's friends and they were their territory. But he never spoke up, not even for them.

And Dash hated that.

As Danny and that guy disappeared, he turned to Kwan, not willing to look at Manson and Foley because they were and probably will always be more honest, loyal and kind than he. He looked remorsefully into his friend's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Kwan. I'm not like you. I can't stick up for others when I'm too afraid to stick up for myself," he looked away and dragged his feet off to where he could sulk. And he needed a good sulking, and some time to think about things.

Sam and Tucker watched his back apprehensively, but Kwan was solemn as he watched Dash walk away.

* * *

"You're a ghost," Danny stated blandly.

Johnny blinked, "How did you know?"

"I've been manipulated by a lot of ghosts. You'd think I'd recognize the effects now," she told him dryly.

"Oh…well, I'm here and my girl's stuck in the Ghost Zone. I was supposed to find her a body…"

"Why don't you just take her out to a nice dinner, and say sorry?"

"Well…I could. Do you think that'll work?"

"Sure, why not? I'll even cook and serve."

"Really? Wow. Thanks. But why would you do that?"

"Because I think Fate is trying to tell me something."

"What's that?"

"That I'm doomed to be stuck with ghosts."

And that settled it. Danny cooked a nice Italian dinner, followed Johnny, and coerced Kitty into enjoying it. The couple cooed and fed each other, happily spending time together and enjoying the meal.

Despite the sappy scene, Danny's lips tugged into a smile.

"You two really are made for each other."

"Aren't we? You are officially branded as my new little sister," Johnny sighed, looking into Kitty's eyes.

Kitty giggled, "And you can be my maid of honor when we have a ghostly wedding."

Danny just sighed in exasperation, still smiling.

Started 9/1/08 –Completed 9/3/08


	9. Aliquando Bonus Dormitat Homerus

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably.  
Warnings: Allusions to rape, violence, cursing, sexual situations...  
Pairings: Danny/Dash, Danny/Kwan, one-sided (most of the time) Danny/Ghosts, future pairings to be announced...

A/n: Thanks to everyone who's been patient and still sticking to this story, and I'm sorry it took so long to get this out. I've been really busy in RL and have had no motivation or inspiration for this story until recently. Hopefully, the next chapter will come faster.

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Nine: Aliquando Bonus Dormitat Homerus_

"Man, I so want a motorcycle," Danny sighed, walking out of her house. After riding on Johnny 13's motorcycle when he'd driven to her home after taking her from the carnival, she decided she wanted a motocycle as well. It was fun and exhililarating.

Pouting, she walked to school and hoped one day she could buy one. Well, at least she had both permits for driving a car and riding a motorcycle. She _knew_ it would be a good idea to take both just because she could.

It was when she was walking home from school that she noticed the sleek black Ninja motorcycle in front of her porch, with a nice big red ribbon tied around it.

Eyeing it, she slipped inside and sought out her parents. Seeing her mother in the kitchen, Danny asked her about it.

"Mom, you know we have a motorcycle in the front."

"Yes, dear. The card that came with it says it's from Vlad. He heard you wanted a motorcycle and sent one over immediately. Isn't that nice of him?"

Okay, she'd just mentioned wanting one that morning, so she had no idea how he knew she wanted one or how he had it sent over so quickly. But who cares? It totally kicked ass and it was all hers!

"Did it come with keys?" Danny asked eagerly.

"Uh huh."

"Do you have them?"

"Uh huh."

"Can _I _have them?!"

Maddie looked thoughtful, "Hmm, I don't know…"

"Mom!"

Her mother laughed, "Okay, okay. Here."

Danny jumped in glee, taking the keys her mom offered and running back out the front door to take her brand new Ninja out for a spin.

* * *

Great, she goes out to enjoy her ride and now there was a ghost invasion. Danny sometimes wondered at her luck. She went faster and slid the bike to a halt in front of her gaping friends.

"Now would be a good time to compliment you on your new wheels, which by the way is totally cool, but there are a lot of ghosts suddenly attacking Amity en masse," Tucker stared at her motorcycle, despite being worried about the ghosts.

"I've never seen so many ghosts attacking all at once before," Sam winced.

"Huh," Kwan deadpanned, after glancing between the ghosts and the motorcycle several times.

Danny scowled, "I got it. Sam, Tucker, go to my house and get several ecto guns to help fight off the ghosts, and meet me at school. Kwan, you're with me."

Sam and Tucker nodded, running off to do exactly what she'd ordered them to do, while Kwan snapped out of it and climbed onto the bike behind her. She gunned the engine and then took off.

Somehow she had the feeling that some kind of battle was going to be at school. And she was right. A bunch of Walker's goons were terrorizing some students and teachers still loitering around. Jerking the bike to a stop, she slid in a curve, slowing to a halt in front of Lancer.

"Phantom of the Opera! Miss Fenton, what on earth?! And why are you still here? Can't you see we're under attack?"

Danny blinked at him, "Of course. I'm the exterminator."

Kwan sighed from behind her.

"Miss Fenton, I suggest just running away," Lancer looked sternly at her.

"Oh, look, a ghost of a plane!" Danny pointed at the sky.

Lancer looked up, "Wait a second…planes can't be ghosts!" He looked back down to see Danny and Kwan had already disappeared, a note attached to Danny's new motorcycle saying, 'Please take care of my bike, Mr. Lancer!!! Owe you one!' with a small drawing of Danny's head grinning and one of her hands giving the peace sign.

"Damn right you do, Missy Miss," Lancer grumbled. "And since when did you have a motorcycle?!"

Back with Kwan and Danny, the two luckily met up with Sam and Tucker. Sam tossed an ecto gun to Kwan and Tucker handed Danny the Thermos. Just when they were getting ready to get going, Danny's parents appeared.

"Not that we're not proud you're following in our steps, Danny, but there's an assembly you have to attend!"

But the assembly was a joke that her parents had cooked up, with absurd rules that Danny was not going to follow. And then mass panic ensued when ghosts interrupted and started terrorizing everyone there. Danny did as much damage control as she could, especially with her parents there, but she couldn't go ghost with so many people around and nowhere to hide and go ghost in.

When she finally got to go home, she was greeted by the most oddest sight ever. Her parents had formed the Ghostkateers, formed of Dash, Paulina, and Kwan of all people. Well, at least her Asian friend was back on good terms with Dash it seemed like, though he could have mentioned it to her sometime.

Her parents finished their rally with the group and Danny rolled her eyes.

"Yo, Kwan? Wanna eat pizza and hang upstairs?" Danny called out, smirking at him.

For some reason, Kwan looked confused before he looked hesitant. Then he glanced at Dash before uncertainly coming closer to her and following her to the kitchen and then to her room.

"What's up with you? You're acting all quiet and stuff. And since when were you friends with Dash again?" Danny asked, taking a bite out of her ham and sausage pizza.

Kwan licked his lips tentatively, "Have I been really quiet? Sorry, just the whole invasion of ghosts and everything. The town's had ghosts before, but never a full invasion, you know? And I'm not really, uh, friends with D-Dash. It's a really recent thing. Uh, you know?"

Danny snickered, "Yeah, _I know_."

Both her and Kwan started laughing and the strange tension eased away, letting them talk freely again.

Well, if Danny had kept her guard up around herself like she usually does, she would have questioned it more. Because Danny was a lot more jaded and less trusting than she used to be, and she was certainly slacking off now in regards to that. Friends or not, Danny just didn't trust herself to be so trusting or relaxed around anyone anymore.

Maybe if she had stayed her usual distrustful self, she would have known that Kwan was being possessed by Bullet, Walker's number one henchman and second in command.

Not that he was really thinking about that at the moment. Bullet was actually having fun and having a good time, something he didn't usually have in the Ghost Zone, busy capturing ghosts and monitoring the prison. It was also very easy to talk to Phantom, and he couldn't see why Walker had such a bad grudge against the girl. Then again, she did mess with the rulebook and let the prisoners out last time she was in the prison, and Walker hated someone messing around with his precious rulebook and causing chaos in his domain…

"It's late, Jeong. You're not going to sleep here, are you?" Danny joked.

He opened his mouth to reply when one of Danny's parents walked by.

"I think it's a great idea! It's late anyway, especially with the curfew in effect," Maddie commented. "Kwan can sleep over, if he wants. You guys can sleep downstairs and have a movie night. Just don't stay up too late. You have school tomorrow."

"Oh, uh, sure," Danny agreed in surprise. "That cool with you, Kwan?"

Bullet hesitantly nodded.

"Great! Dinner's in ten. See you two in a little bit," Maddie said cheerily.

In ten minutes, both of them were at the dinner table, sitting in an unusually stiff atmosphere. Maddie was sitting with a frozen smile, while Jack brooded and frowned occasionally at Kwan or glared back at Maddie. Jazz just looked back and forth at her parents helplessly, while glancing apologetically at Danny.

Dinner was very reserved that night.

When it was over, Jazz scurried up the stairs to hide in her room, while Danny's parents went up more slowly, with Maddie dragging a reluctant Jack behind her.

"I'm sorry about my parents," Danny muttered, averting her eyes.

Bullet kept quiet, contemplating temporarily leaving the boy's body so that he could be the one to talk to the girl. He wasn't good at this kind of thing and might just say something stupid.

"You're always asking why I hate jocks so much," Danny started out anxiously. "When I was younger…I used to date one. Jack Madden was very charming and sweet, star quarterback of the Varsity team here when I was in my last year of junior high. He was very popular and handsome, and I thought I was very lucky to have caught his eye…especially with so many other girls who wanted him and that I've always had such a low self-esteem."

He nodded encouragingly, since he didn't know what else he could do.

"He raped me," Danny confessed in a rush. "He raped me and I've never felt comfortable around another guy except a select few since then. I grew cynical, angry and hateful of almost everything and everyone around me. It's toned down, but sometimes I just feel like that."

Bullet froze and tensed up, unsure what to do in response to what she said. Tentatively, he opened his arms to embrace her, not sure if it was the appropriate thing to do in this situation but not sure of what else he could do.

She paused before she accepted his embrace, sitting stiff in his arms. Slowly, she began to relax and Bullet tightened his hold briefly before releasing and leaning over her to grab the remote, turning on the TV to start the Matrix marathon on AMC. They sat there in the quiet, with Danny eventually becoming comfortable enough to lean against him.

The next day, there was a definite change to their relationship. Closer, even. So when they went to school, they were quiet but very relaxed. They went through the day in this manner, confusing but not worrying their friends. They seemed okay, after all.

At lunchtime, they were eating rapidly, as per Jack's orders, with the ghost shield made from the Fenton RV on. They were completely laid-back, when the huge wolf ghost managed to break through and started causing pandemonium. Students ran around like headless chickens.

Danny cursed, but surprisingly Kwan was scowling and looking murderous. Instead of going with Danny, Tucker, and Sam, he ran off somewhere. She didn't have time to look for him, but she had to go deal with the wolf ghost now.

Changing forms behind a tree, she chased after it, glancing regretfully at the Fenton RV. Shame that. There goes the family vehicle for a month or two.

Just as she was catching up to the wolf ghost, and consequently Walker's henchmen who were chasing after the wolf ghost, her father shot at her with the Fenton Bazooka. Thankfully, Jazz bumped into Jack and his aim went off, catching most of the henchmen except for Walker's second. They were teleported back to the Ghost Zone, making Danny gape.

"Oh crap. Portable portals."

Well, at least her mother wasn't there.

The shot that almost hit her said otherwise. Maddie was so not getting anything for Mother's Day.

She flew away quickly, finally seeing the wolf ghost and Bullet, who had finally caught up with the wolf ghost himself, unnecessarily harming the wolf ghost with the collar more than was reasonable. Frowning to herself, she shot a blast at Bullet to distract him while tackling the wolf ghost and flying off with him.

"Okay, wolf ghost, I am a _friend_," Danny enunciated.

The wolf ghost nodded and slobbered all over her, licking her face.

"Friend. Me, Wulf," and then Wulf started speaking a strange language that she had no idea what it was. She spoke French, Spanish, Russian, Italian, and some Chinese, but whatever he was saying went over her head.

"Alright, we need to get you hidden somewhere."

After locating Tucker, Sam, and a disgruntled Kwan, she hustled them over to Tucker's house.

"He's speaking Esperanto. It's geek language. It was really popular back then, but then it died down and now only geeks use it to communicate to other geeks," Tucker explained.

"Well, that explains why I couldn't understand him," Danny said irritably.

"Except I can't understand what exactly he's screaming," Tucker added, wincing.

"Work on that, 'cause I've got some things to do in the meantime," Danny sighed.

"Look, guys, I got to go too," Kwan cut in, looking nervous. "Like, uh, now."

In a second, he'd disappeared, running off on them. The three of them blinked in surprise.

"Dude, he's fast," Tucker gaped.

Danny shook her head, but shrugged it off. "Well, I'll get off to my business now. See you two in a little bit."

She flew to the school, Thermos in hand, but managed to catch a meeting off guard. She changed back to her human form and slipped into the classroom.

"Kwan, Dash, what are you two doing here?" Danny asked in confusion, seeing only them. Though, she could've sworn there were others there.

"Danny, Danny, good of you to join us," Dash smirked, but it was off –just a little bit unkind.

Kwan stayed quiet, stoic faced.

Danny glanced between the two, frowning and becoming wary.

"This isn't funny," she stonily said, glaring.

"No, it's not," Dash whispered into her ear, suddenly right beside her and pressing her up against the wall.

She stiffened up.

When one of his hands placed itself firmly on her hip and the other trailed teasingly lower, daringly dipping low, her breathing started coming faster. Her eyes started tearing up.

"Stop it, Dash," she muttered. "I told you this isn't funny."

"I know," Dash's lips touched onto her neck, sucking gently before biting down harshly and making Danny cry out.

A burst of tears came out of her and she started muttering and sobbing incoherently, her arms and legs flailing out uncoordinatedly and just trying to hit him or get away.

"Stop it," Kwan hissed, jerking Dash back.

Dash raised an eyebrow at him, though his eyes trailed back to Danny in wary confusion.

"Just leave her alone," Kwan glared, pushing Dash away from the girl.

"Fine. I have to finish up some things anyway. See you, Phantom," Dash sneered before walking out of the room.

Bullet in Kwan's body hesitated before cautiously approaching the hysteric girl. He lightly touched her shoulder when she screamed and lashed out wildly.

"Please, please, please, please," she muttered.

"Danny, Danny, it's okay. Nothing's going to happen to you," he murmured.

She didn't look at him, but she calmed down slightly.

"They don't deserve it," Bullet choked out. "This boy, or even the other. I-I'm not Kwan, Danny."

Her head whipped up, staring at him with wild eyes. Reluctantly, he phased out of the boy's body and stared at her sadly.

"Walker was in the other boy's body, so don't blame him –Dash. It wasn't him…" he trailed off before slipping back into Kwan's body and flying off.

Danny collapsed onto the floor, exhausted.

* * *

Wulf escaped, but at least his collar was off. News report is on and the Mayor is proclaiming her the cause of all the ghost chaos. Yup, same old, same old.

"You have to go, Danny. You can't just sit here. You're practically Public Enemy Number One! You need to clear your name," Sam urged her.

Danny sighed morosely and dragged herself off the couch, grabbing the Fenton Thermos and flying to the live speech.

"You've got it all wrong," Danny said half-heartedly in her defense. "I'm not the bad guy. The real bad guys are possessing the Mayor and several other people."

She was answered by her parents shooting insanely at her. She dodged quickly, at ease with everyone not overshadowed having run away (exempting her parents, but they were never normal to begin with), before she was taken underground by Walker, where she started fighting against a bizarre group of people.

Paulina went up against her first, but sadly, these ghosts were hardly trained for any combat. She could gloat about that at least, even with her depression.

After forcing the ghost guard out of Paulina, she sucked it into the Thermos with a smug grin.

"Oh, are you like a good ghost?" she asked Danny in awe.

"Yeah, you can say that," Danny shrugged and gave a grin that she thought probably looked more like a grimace.

"You. Are. So. _Cool_," Paulina gaped.

"Uh, thanks. I think you should run now, though."

Paulina nodded cheerfully at her before turning around and running away, screaming just as Kwan swooped down and began to attack Danny unenthusiastically.

"Oh, I am so going to enjoy this," Danny muttered viciously.

She didn't hold back.

After spectacularly beating Kwan and Bullet-in-Kwan's body, she gave him a knee to the gut, and then took his arm, swinging and flinging him to the wall, where he was knocked out and Bullet dazedly phased out of Kwan.

"Ready for round two?" Danny sneered, glaring.

Bullet shook his head, holding up his hands in surrender. She was about to ignore the figurative white flag when she hesitated. Bullet didn't seem like he wanted to harm her and she remembered when she was talking to Kwan she was actually talking to Bullet.

Regrettably, she just sucked Bullet into the Thermos.

She knocked out Principal Ishiyama and Mr. Lancer, before seeing Dash. She started seeing red before forcing herself to calm down.

'Itwasn'tDashItwasn'tDashItwasn'tDash –'

But her mind didn't want to accept that.

So she settled for a KO, knocking Dash out and was unhappy to see it wasn't Walker occupying the blond. Sucking in that ghost, she searched for the Mayor, instinctively knowing that Walker would go for the person who made the rules.

She was caught off guard when the ghost warden snuck behind her and dragged her outside, screaming in front of the cameras.

"Please don't hurt me!"

Danny would be absolutely pissed off if she didn't at least get in one hit.

Walker easily got them back inside, only for Wulf to intervened and force Walker out of the Mayor's body. Wulf grabbed a hold of Walker, nodding reassuringly at Danny.

"We'll meet again. Friend."

Danny hesitated but held up the Thermos, sucking the two other ghosts in. The damage was done anyway. She was an enemy in both the Ghost Zone and in the real world. She dejectedly flew back home to deposit the ghosts.

Once inside the portal, she uncapped the Thermos and let the ghosts out, all of them piling out sluggishly. Wulf quickly came to her side as the others sobered up and got ready to fight her. However, Walker put a hand up and stopped his henchmen.

"Go back to the prison. Keep watch there. Phantom and I have unfinished business."

The others confusedly left, but Wulf stayed steadfastly next to Danny and Bullet hesitated.

"Alone, of course."

Wulf and Bullet tensed up, but Danny frowned.

"Go on, Wulf. I'll be fine. You go run off and be free, you hear?" Danny encouraged.

Wulf glanced at her worriedly before nodding and running off. Bullet still stayed.

"I'm not going to do anything to her. You have my word, Bullet," Walker spoke up.

Bullet frowned, but looked to Danny.

"When you talked, I really listened," he said simply.

She nodded in acknowledgement.

He was about to leave before undecidedly coming closer and hugged her. He flew off a second later.

"What do you want, Walker?" Danny snapped, after a second of tense silence after Bullet had left.

"I apologize for my behavior earlier. It was inexcusable," Walker said, immediately to the point. "I have not been in close proximity to a beautiful female in a long time. That does not excuse myself, however. I also didn't think you'd react that way. I was not aware of your circumstances either, until Bullet had reprised me of it afterwards. That still doesn't excuse me and I have nothing to offer you except my apologies and a chance to beat me up in a fight."

Danny's face was blank, but she was regarding him closely. And then she was flying at him at an unbelievable speed, decking him in the jaw before he had a chance to react or even see it coming. He flew a distance away, crashing into a wall of an abandoned building.

She flew over and hovered near him, and he was surprised to see a hand in front of his face. He grabbed it and was hauled up roughly.

"Much obliged," he murmured.

"If you ever…_ever_…do something like that again, I don't care if you're a ghost –I will_ find_ a way to kill you," Danny told him hoarsely.

He nodded, "Understood, ma'am."

Danny nodded jerkily back before backing away and then starting to fly back quickly.

"Feared on Earth, wanted in the Ghost Zone…what in heaven's name are you going to do now, Phantom?" Walker's voice echoed eerily behind her.

She didn't answer.

"You've lost and have nowhere else to go, nowhere and no one to turn to."

She stalled, faltering and hovering in place for a second.

"There's always a place for you in my prison, Phantom."

Strange to find it sounding like an invitation.

Started 9/2/09(?) –Completed 2/11/10


	10. Caput Mortuum

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set all over the place.  
Spoilers: I'm not sure…most probably.  
Warnings: Allusions to rape, violence, cursing, sexual situations...  
Pairings: Danny/Dash, Danny/Kwan, one-sided (most of the time) Danny/Ghosts, various odd smidgens of Danny/OCs, future pairings to be announced...

Chapter One title: _Inferno_ –**Hell  
**Chapter Two title: _Purgatorio_ –**Purgatory  
**Chapter Three title: _Paradiso_ –**Paradise  
**Chapter Four title: _Absit Invidia_ –**Let Ill Will Be Absent  
**Chapter Five title: _Vanitas Vanitatum et Omnia Vanitas_** –Vanity of Vanities, and All is Vanity  
**Chapter Six title: _Velle est Posse_** –To Be Willing is To Be Able  
**Chapter Seven title: _Vox Humana_ **–The Human Voice  
**Chapter Eight title: _Virginibus Puerisque_** –For Girls and Boys  
**Chapter Nine title: _Aliquando Bonus Dormitat Homerus_** –Sometimes Even Good Homer Dozes  
**Chapter Ten title: _Caput Mortuum_** –Death's Head**

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Ten: Caput Mortuum_

Danny had not spoken to anyone since it was literally written in the paper that she was Public Enemy Number One. She avoided everyone, and the only way Dash and Kwan could speak to her was through tutoring. And if they mentioned anything outside of schoolwork, she blanked out and pretended they hadn't even spoken.

Sam and Tucker didn't have that luxury.

It was as if she'd withdrawn into herself and refused to acknowledge the outside world. Danny was just…gone.

"Danny loves Halloween. Halloween is in a week. It's Lancer's turn to do the haunted house this year. Danny is Lancer's favorite student," Sam laid it out.

"So we ask Lancer if we can help him, and drag Danny into it," Kwan summed up.

"And depending on what's wrong, I might just say no. So what's going on?" Lancer cut in, appearing suddenly behind them with a raised eyebrow.

"Mr. Lancer!" Dash whirled around, while Sam and Tucker froze like deer in headlights and Kwan just stopped moving and watched the floor.

"Well, you see, it's like this…actually, we don't really know how to explain this, so we're just going to say that Danny isn't speaking to _any_ of us and we don't know why or what's happened," Tucker blurted out.

"Actually," Kwan cut in quietly, "It had to do with an incident that was similar to what happened. _Before_."

And by the paling of Lancer's face, Kwan knew that Lancer understood exactly what he'd implied.

"I see. Then, Dash and Kwan can help out, since they need extra credit, and Danny will help since she is essentially responsible for you two," Lancer announced, before turning on his heel and walking away.

"Woah, woah, what's going on?" Tucker interrupted in a whisper.

"Nothing, nothing," Kwan said quickly.

Dash was quiet.

When they were able to get away from the other two, Dash confronted Kwan.

"Let me get this straight, Danny's Phantom?"

Kwan winced, "You remember everything then? From when you were overshadowed?"

"You mean when I was possessed?" Dash snapped. "Yes. And I remember exactly what I, that _bastard_ inside me, did to Danny. Is that why she's freaking out on us?"

"Yes. And there is the added plus of her becoming Public Enemy Number One, don't forget. But mostly, it's you, uh, Walker touching her," Kwan winced.

"…You said…to Lancer…that it was an incident _similar_ to what happened before," Dash picked out, using a soft voice.

Kwan swallowed harshly. So Dash had caught that. "Look, it's Danny's business. She'll tell you when she tells you. She told me, but I was pretty much overshadowed at that time. Just that…something happened. To her. With a jock."

"_Who?!_ Tell me, I'll beat the shit out of them!" Dash hissed out angrily.

Kwan shook his head, "He's graduated, Dash."

Dash swore and swung his fist into a locker, cursing again in pain.

"Fuck, no wonder she hates jocks," Dash clenched his jaw.

"Truce?"

Kwan hesitantly held out his hand. Dash didn't hesitate. He took it and held it.

"Truce."

Successfully, with Lancer's help, they'd managed to rope Danny into the haunted house extra credit. And while she was at first reluctant, she got really into it, especially since she loved Halloween. With both her and Lancer geared up and hyped up, she was slowly starting to go back to being the laid-back girl they knew.

"Who are we going to beat?!"

"Tetslaff!" Danny echoed Lancer's scream.

"_Who are we going to beat_?!"

"_Tetslaff!_"

"WHO ARE WE GOING TO BEAT?!"

"TETSLAFF!"

Kwan and Dash sweatdropped.

Both Danny and Lancer pumped their fists into the air before posing with a victory sign.

"Let's do it!"

"Yes! Right after I get us some more water bottles. King James Bible, am I thirsty right now…" Lancer whistled. "You kids take a lunch break and I'll be back with some more water."

Danny's smile faltered as Lancer walked away, and she hesitantly turned towards the two boys. They stared expectantly at her, sitting at a foldable table they'd brought in, with their food already laid out.

"It's not much. Just some sandwiches I made," Kwan smiled hesitantly.

"And I brought some junk food. Chips, muffins…" Dash added.

Danny quietly sat in a chair between them, tensing up. She reached out and took a sandwich, nibbling it as the other two took theirs.

"So how have you been, Danny?" Kwan asked to start off.

"Fine," she mumbled.

"And –"

She cut Dash off, "I have to go to the bathroom."

She stood up abruptly and walked away, but Kwan gestured to Dash that he was going to try to get Danny to talk to him. When she exited the bathroom, Kwan moved to block her. She flinched and backed up.

"Please no," she whimpered.

Kwan flinched this time, "Danny, no. I would never hurt you. Please. That wasn't me, that wasn't me…"

Danny was silent.

"But it was your face that I saw."

And then she ducked away and moved passed him.

Kwan released the breath he was holding. It was horrible. She knew it wasn't him, but that made it worse. Because it didn't matter if she knew. She was still haunted because it was _his_ face she saw. His.

It would be ten times as worse for Dash. Kwan knew that at least.

Lancer came back and they were back to work. They were cleaning the place up, because it may look natural, but they didn't want people to _sneeze_ to death. The phrase was scare to death.

And then they began creating the elaborate plan that Danny had designed for the haunted house, creating a Victorian era room, which Danny had said would be filled with vampires.

"But how are we going to get vamp people into that room? We don't have money to hire good actors to play real vamps," Kwan pointed out.

"Oh, that's okay. Vlad said he'd send over some actor friends of his that'll play the part," Danny waved it off.

"Vlad?" Dash blinked.

"Masters."

All three males gaped at her.

"Since when do you know Vlad Masters, Danny?" Kwan gawped rather dumbly.

"Well, for a while," she shrugged. "Since Mom and Dad's last school reunion not too long ago. He's nice. He gave me my cell phone, Harley –don't even say my bike isn't a person –and my laptop. Oh, and my new iPod."

They continued gaping and she just shrugged it off. Again.

So along with the Victorian era room, which Danny was going to preside in, a couple rooms were going to be murder scenes, complete with blood splatters, bodies, etc, and there was going to be some rooms locked, a room with eatable food for the guests but looked disgusting and rotten, a room filled with porcelain dolls that Danny assured them would occasionally blink, a room that walls bled and screeched, a satanic ritual room with a shriveled baby fetus on the stone slab in the middle of the room, a room with a Cujo look-alike and a bashed up car with blood smeared on the windows, and then a car in another room ready to roar and ready to look like it'll run over whoever comes into the room and CHRISTINE plastered on the license plate on the front.

"…How are we going to afford all that?"

"I have connections. And my parents are scientists. Hey, I can even bring the Fenton Stockades!"

Then the second floor was supposed to be special. And secret. But really, she was enlisting Penelope, who consequently was going to make Bertrand help. Wulf was too, alternating with Bertrand on chasing people down the second floor and sometimes at the same time. If they made it to the third floor, it'll be a recreation of the nine levels of Hell from Dante's Inferno, each level going passed the floor space by space. Luckily, it had no doors and was just one large space. Too bad she couldn't find Johnny or Kitty. Shadow would've helped a lot.

She went to the Ghost Zone, looking out for Penelope. She found her and she flew over to her and her assistant.

"Penny!"

"Danny!"

The two females grasped each other in a tight hug, while Bertrand stood awkwardly to the side, sulking.

"How have you gotten along since the last time we met?" Penelope asked.

"Good, good," the false ring in Danny's voice was clear.

"We'll talk later," the ghost ordered firmly.

Danny sighed, "Alright. But you're sure? You'll really come and help with the haunted house?"

"Of course. It'll be fun and I get to feed off of kiddies' miseries for a while. Bertrand will be scaring off the more bolder ones," Penelope outlined. She would affect the whole house, while Bertrand situated himself in the second floor.

"And Tucker said he'd work the incorporeal screams and flickering lights while Jazz and Sam said they wanted to just mess around and run all over the house in hooded cloaks and creep up on people," Danny nodded.

"Then we're all set," Penelope was cheery.

"Um, Bertrand, you're okay with this?" Danny looked to the other ghost, since he'd been quiet and brooding and hadn't participated in the discussion.

Bertrand pursed his lips, but twitched. "Yes. Yes, I am fine with this. I'll scare the bejeesus out of them all, you'll see."

And then he got a glint in his eye and began looking more excited.

Danny went out of the Ghost Zone much more relaxed than having gone in and headed straight for her motorcycle. She gunned the engine and then rode back to the haunted house.

In front of it, she was surprised to see two familiar guys.

"Guy! Roger! What are you two doing here?" she asked, sliding to a stop in front of them.

"Nice ride," Guy grinned.

Roger shook his head in exasperation at his friend, "Vlad asked us to help you out. Guy and I did some Broadway, but then we did small time parts in movies and on TV. Now we're signed on to a TV show full-time. So, we're good on acting. Okay with us?"

"More than okay!" Danny grinned back and leaped forward, pulling both men into a hug.

"Great! Let's get on in and start," Roger snickered as he prompted the two in, especially with Guy trying to bury his head into Danny's breasts.

"Pervert!" Danny whined.

She wondered why she was so comfortable with them.

Inside was a rather tense atmosphere. Oblivious to it was Danny and Lancer, who got back into their pep rallying and began to work with gusto. Dash and Kwan were glaring at Guy and Roger, who gazed back with cool stares.

"So Danny, where do you usually go to eat out?" Guy spoke, oddly composed and not at all rowdy like he usually was.

"Uh, the local burger joint, Nasty Burger," Danny replied as she attacked a spider web viciously.

"What's the most reputable restaurant here?" Roger inquired after.

"Bella Italia," Danny answered after thinking about it.

"We'll take you there for dinner tonight. Our treat," Guy smirked.

"You guys shouldn't –"

"Oh, oh, Danny, you should try the pasta primavera!" Lancer cut in obliviously.

"We could all get dishes and share," Roger threw out, seeing that it would probably help to make it seem less expensive by sharing and that it might make her more at ease at an expensive restaurant by being able to do something friendly.

"Um, sure, why not?" Danny offered a tentative smile, and both men noticed the high school jocks glaring even more at them.

"Knowing you, you'll probably pull an all-nighter to help get things going," Guy was going to push the envelope just a little more.

"Yeah, probably."

"Well, we can stay and help out. In fact, we can start after dinner, work off the food we ate," Roger kept the ball going.

"Great! I didn't want to stay here alone," Danny smiled brightly at them.

Dash and Kwan glowered, unable to offer the same because they had to go home.

Lancer hummed in obliviousness, working on his pumpkin.

* * *

"So what's been happening?" Guy smacked his lips noisily after taking a sip from his wine, winking at her.

She giggled, "Nothing much. Ghosts here and there, my parents getting more work, and just the usual school and class stuff. How about you guys?"

"Same here, sort of," Roger snorted. "And the stuff we told you earlier about our acting careers. We're still working out details, but you might be looking at two new TV doctors."

Guy winked again, "You can get a personal check up from me."

Roger hit him upside the head, rolling his eyes.

"What did I tell you about the corny or lewd jokes?"

"Not to do them."

"Exactly."

Guy pouted.

Danny giggled even more, starting to get louder. She refrained but it was hard.

"This was great, guys. Thanks a lot. I had a great time. Too bad you can't stay," Danny sighed.

"You can always visit us too, you know," Roger suggested. "We share a condo over in LA and you're welcome anytime to just pop in and say hi, stay awhile, visit, or hell –if you want to move in after school, we've got room."

Danny's eyes widened, "Really?"

"Reeaaallly," Guy drew out the word.

"You two are so much fun!"

They were still getting along and having fun, even when they got to the haunted house and returned to working. They collapsed onto a couch, both guys leaning on each other while Danny was draped comfortably across their laps. And it was to this scene that Kwan and Dash walked in on, their good mood evaporating into steam.

"Time to work and not slack!" Kwan screamed, watching satisfactorily as the group jumped up in surprise at the sudden noise.

"Work, work, work," Dash snarked. "No time to waste."

The two jocks stiffly went to their unfinished jobs from the day before.

And it was like that as time passed, either catching the group sleeping on the couch (and even once on a bed in one of the rooms!) or that the three were already up and had eaten breakfast and was drinking coffee (or in Danny's case milk).

Soon enough, it was the day before Halloween, with Dash and Kwan reluctantly having to leave once again. Lancer had retired long ago, complaining about an achy back, and that meant the three were left alone. Again. Only this time, Dash and Kwan saw that they were going to have dinner in the haunted house, a picnic blanket set out on the floor and a candelabra lit in the middle of it. An assortment of food was around the three and they could see Guy hold up a piece of grape and Danny leaning forwardly exasperatedly with her mouth opened to eat it, a light blush on her face.

Kwan slammed the door behind him.

The next day, Danny was cooking up a storm for the disgusting/rotten-looking food she was going to add to the haunted house, her frilly red and white plaid apron flying as she moved around. She ran to one side to the other, baking, stirring, and eventually collapsing into a chair for rest.

Guy and Roger walked in with their eyebrows raised.

"Need help, hunny?" Roger asked.

"Please?" Danny pouted adorably.

They helped her finish up the little bit that was left, the two boys entering just at the end and witness them helping her once more with scowls seemingly etched onto their faces.

"Okay! We are done! Finally!" Danny cheered.

"Good, good. Now for costumes," Guy cackled.

The three ran off and Kwan and Dash once again felt like fourth and fifth wheels.

Time came and Lancer trotted in, dressed up as Freddy Krueger, and to continue the horror icon theme, Kwan dressed up as Jason Voorhees and Dash dressed up as Michael Myers. Tucker came in, wearing a simple eyeglass with a huge nose and mustache attached, and Jazz and Sam came in wearing Grim Reaper tattered hooded cloaks and actually had nicely crafted replica scythes.

"Where's Danny? She's been on a super drive on this whole haunted house thing. She needs to give me a tour to show off the fruits of her labor," Sam complained.

"She's right here," Guy jumped into the room, stumbling into a roll and then jumping up. He wore a tight burgundy vest over a white dress shirt, ruffles down his front from his neck to the v opening of the vest, and a gold pendant tied around the collar and lying on top of the ruffles. His fitted black slacks were accompanied by leather knee-high boots.

Roger walked in after, rolling his eyes and wearing something similar to Guy, with emerald instead of burgundy. Both of them sported fanged smirks and extra pale skin, along with reddened lips and slicked back hair.

Then Danny came in, wearing the red and gold Anne Boleyn dress she'd bought not too long ago just for Halloween, the hem of the skirt flowing to the ground with a small trail behind her, her breasts pushed up in the bodice, showing ample cleavage, and her hair curled and teased before being pulled back and then piled on top of her hair. She was also sporting the gold pendant that hung on top of the cleft of her breasts.

Dash whistled like he usually did for girls who were extremely pretty, before realizing who he had done it to. Then he blushed and tensed simultaneously.

With an added musical lilt to her voice, Danny spoke with a cool, "Are we all ready? It's getting time for it to start."

"Girl, you've got it all down pat, from the clothing to speaking," Tucker shook his head.

"I like to be authentic," Danny shrugged, speaking in her normal voice before going back. "Let's get going, you guys!"

Penelope and Bertrand should be here soon, and Wulf should've met them at the portal. She left it open and they would close it after they exited. When the others separated, she waited anxiously on the second floor. It wasn't long until the group she was waiting for appeared, along with an extra ghost. Danny winced.

"Klemper, what are you doing here?" Danny kept her smile on her face.

"I want to help!" the overly friendly ghost grinned widely at her, carrying a glowing green sword.

"Okay, Klemper. Just…randomly appear on the first floor," she murmured reluctantly.

"You got it! I brought something to help too," Klemper eagerly handed her the sword.

She tried to grasp it, only for it to fall through her hands.

"Huh, must be because you're in human form," Penelope finally spoke, watching the whole thing in amusement.

"Hm, well, you can go take it to the room I'm going to be in, Klemper," Danny shrugged. "I'm got to go make sure everything's ready, so we all have to be in our places in five."

"Okay, we'll be set to go," Bertrand spoke for the rest of them, at last looking excited and keyed up and actually eager to do some scaring.

"Thanks again, guys. I owe you all," Danny thanked them happily.

"No problem," Wulf spoke slowly, trying to get all the syllables correct. Then he started jabbering in Esperanto so they all lost him. Danny made a mental note that she really needed to learn that soon.

"Besides, we get a free pass out of the Ghost Zone for a little while," Penelope pointed out.

"Right, right. See you in a little bit!"

Danny dashed off to around the house, double checking everything and everyone, before heading to her own room where Guy and Roger were already waiting. Her room was elegantly made, with it like a throne room and her throne at the back of the room with the lighting extremely brightly lit in that area. Life-like mannequins and dummies were strategically place all over, mostly sprawled on furniture or slumped against walls and each other, and their necks bared with blood dripping down from bite wounds. The sword Klemper brought was stuck into the neck of a mannequin bowed submissively in front of her throne.

"Showtime, darling," Roger winked at her.

"Curtain call already?" she murmured, slipping into place between them as she sat on her throne.

And then the screams started.

It was a lot of fun until a ghostly knight burst in, his dark Pegasus neighing harshly. Danny stood up hurriedly, glaring. She wouldn't be able to transform, not with both Guy and Roger there and practically nowhere to hide and change.

"Roger, Guy, run!" she snapped.

They were about to refuse strongly when she glared at them with glowing green eyes, and automatically they just started to run passed the knight and out the room. The door slammed close behind them.

The knight stared transfixed at the sword in front of him.

"Is that what you want?" Danny sneered, about to transform. "Well, you can have it. I don't care."

The knight tilted his head, looking contemplative between her and the sword.

"I believe thanks are required then," and the knight grabbed the sword and swung it through her just as the door opened again for Roger and Guy to come back and witness Danny being hit with the sword and then disappearing.

"Time for my reign of chaos, for I am the Fright Knight and I am returned!" the Fright Knight took his sword and held it up, before skillfully twirling it and then sheathing it by his side, going to his winged horse and climbing atop it.

He flew off, disappearing through the ceiling.

"Motherfucker just did something to Danny!" Guy cursed.

Roger hit his head, "Never mind that. We need to find the others and find a way to get her back."

"Yeah, yeah. Worry about the what happened after we figure out the what to do now," he grumbled.

They split and searched out the others, finding Lancer with Kwan and Dash and Jazz and Sam taking a break with Tucker in the temporary control room.

"What's up?" Jazz flicked her hair behind her back, but looked concerned once Guy blurted out Danny's name.

"What about Danny?" Kwan freaked out.

"There was this knight and he stormed into the room, Danny practically threw us out with glowy eyes, yelling at us –and you know how scary and authoritative she is when she yells – and then the knight took the sword that was in the room and cut through her and she just disappeared!" Guy blurted out.

At least they understood the rapid word vomit.

"Oh no. Klemper, what did you do?" Penelope appeared, floating down to the group with Bertrand behind her. Klemper floated down with them reluctantly with Wulf whimpering behind him.

"Wha –Spectra!" Tucker yelled out.

"Let's just say Danny still keeps in contact with me," Penelope waved it off. "Anyways, Danny asked the three of us to come down and help scare trick or treaters here. Klemper asked if he could help and brought that sword along. Danny said to put it in the room she was going to be in and now this happens."

"Klemper, where the hell did you get the sword?" Kwan snapped, scowling fiercely.

Klemper flinched, "Uhhh, I heard there was a really creepy castle in the Ghost Zone and I went there. There was a sword inside and a lot of dangerous traps, but I went through them and I got the sword from the pumpkin it was in…uh, the knight burst into appearance and started chasing me, but I got to get away with the sword!"

"_Klemper_, the knight followed you _here_," Bertrand said irritably.

"This knight wouldn't be the _Fright Knight_, would it?" Sam asked, worried but excited at the same time.

"The who?" Dash asked.

"The Spirit of Halloween," both Lancer and Sam answered.

The two stared at each other before shivering, while everyone else stared at them incredulously.

"The knight did call himself that," Roger said slowly.

"The Fright Knight is a ghost of legend," Bertrand started darkly. "He's stranded on a castle on an island all to itself in the Ghost Zone, locked away when his ghostly sword, the Soul Shredder, is planted firmly into a pumpkin. Once taken out, the knight will awaken and then come for his sword, henceforth cause chaos in all realms. It is said that when his sword strikes someone, they are pulled into their very own nightmare, pulled into another dimension where they face their greatest fears."

"So that means Danny would be facing hers," Jazz paled.

"Jack Madden," Lancer muttered. He turned swiftly, heading out after grabbing his jacket.

"Where are you going, Mr. Lancer?" Dash panicked.

"I have to get Coach McKinney!" Lancer yelled as he ran out.

"Why would he need Coach?" Kwan asked in confusion.

"He was the only one to be able to get to Danny after she was raped," Jazz clenched her jaw.

"What?!" this was echoed by several people, with Kwan looking away and closing his eyes painfully and Penelope blanking out her face.

"I thought…I thought you all knew," Jazz asked weakly, staring at them all.

"Danny told me just recently, to explain why she's always so hostile to jocks and to me and Dash at first," Kwan answered softly. "I don't think she told anyone else. I don't think she wanted to."

Jazz breathed out harshly, "No, I don't think she did. She probably didn't even want to tell you. After the whole tense dinner and parent thing, she probably was feeling vulnerable enough to confess it to you. And since everyone else now knows, I might as well give the short story version."

She explained what had happened, and the changes in Danny after.

"She never said anything. I never even knew she was dating him," Sam muttered. "I wouldn't have bothered so much with the clothing if I'd known why she dressed that way."

"It was a good thing you did, though, as it _is_ part of the healing process for her to move on by the clothing change," Penelope cut in. They stared at her. She shrugged. "What? Danny was one of the few students I actually did help…the only one, actually."

"We need to find how to defeat the Fright Knight. If we don't do it fast, Danny will be stuck facing that all over again. And it'll probably loop over and over," Jazz directed them back.

"The ghost will stay here and keep watch. Maybe Danny will appear again. Jazz and Dash, get the ecto weapons. Jazz, you'll know where all the useful stuff is. Dash will be the muscle to help bring it all here. Guy and I will go around the town, looking for the Fright Knight. Tucker, Sam, Kwan, the three of you have to go looking for information on how to defeat it. Since Sam knows who he is, she'll be good to refer to and know what you're looking for. Tucker, you're a wiz at computers so maybe you can find something. And Kwan, you're Asian. You have to be smart," Roger started calmly ordering.

Kwan winced inwardly and didn't want to say he was the exception to the stereotype.

The groups split to their destinations, after scribbling a note for Lancer to find whenever he came back.

* * *

Shit, that was _not_ what she'd planned. She was being sarcastic about letting the ghost just have the sword. She really didn't think the ghostly knight would just take it so suddenly and then strike her with it. They usually had some huge monologue! Where was she anyway?

Danny thought again about that, looking around her in confusion. Why was she in the boy's locker room? Did Kwan and Dash hide her in here when she was apparently knocked out? She must have been out for a while if they were able to drag her all the way here.

"Kwan? Dash? Where are you guys?"

"Hey, Dee. I was looking for you."

No. No, no, _no_. That voice…and only one person called her Dee…

She whirled around in fright.

There he was. Dirty blond hair tousled as usual and the greenest eyes she'd ever seen, standing a head taller than her. His muscled torso was bare and only a towel was wrapped around his waist. Water clung to him and she realized he'd just finished his shower.

Jack Madden was leaning against the lockers in front of her, staring at her intensely with a smile playing across his lips.

"This isn't happening," she muttered, backing away without thought.

"It sure is," he murmured. "Come on, Dee. You're acting strange. If we love each other, it's okay."

He pushed off from the lockers he was leaning on, coming closer until he was leaning over her, both of his arms entrapping on either side of her head as she realized she'd back into another row of lockers. He kissed her gently and she froze. Even though she wasn't reacting, his kiss turned more forceful and she snapped out of her daze once his hands had planted themselves onto her hips.

She roughly pushed away, screaming no as she hit his chest over and over again.

"Okay, okay! Fine," he said irritably, after catching her balled up fists and holding it. "Jeez, Dee. If you didn't want to, you could've just said no."

She looked confused at him. This wasn't how it went. At all.

"Come on. Let's grab something to eat at the Nasty Burger," he said as he went to his locker nearby and started to unlock it. He grabbed his clothes and started putting them on like nothing was wrong.

"What's going on?" she said aloud unthinkingly.

Jack rolled his eyes, "What's going _on_ is that I'm taking my girlfriend out to eat. You sure are more spacey than usual right now."

She hesitantly walked closer; flinching when he'd turned around after putting on his letterman jacket and taking her hand. He looked at her weirdly.

"I, um, don't want to go to the Nasty Burger," she blurted out.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Well, where do you want to go?"

"Let's grab something to eat at the city…We could…We could walk around the city there," she mumbled.

"Sounds great. Let's just head to my car and I'll drive us there."

And she broke inside just a little more.

* * *

"I don't get it! It was just here!" Sam screamed, trying to find the book she'd read about the Fright Knight.

It was nearing midnight and they were in the library. By themselves. In the near dark. When it was closed.

Kwan had broken the lock and they'd snuck in. He was getting into the breaking the rules habit Danny and her two friends were always doing…

"What does it look like?" Kwan mumbled on the other side of the bookcase, on his hands and knees as he craned his neck to look for the book on the bottom shelf.

"It's a big tome, dark leather. It's called the Grim Nature of Samhain, but it won't say that on the binding or on the front. You have to open the book and look inside on the front page," Sam muttered as she scanned her side of the bookshelf.

Tucker was connecting to the computer with his PDA and hacking into the library database for any useful books or on hand information in the electronic library.

"Hey, guys! I found something," Tucker called out. "It says here that the Fright Knight should be vanished once more if his sword is put back into a pumpkin. There's a chant included that needs to be said while that's being done, but it's not here. I'll keep looking, but something's telling me the chant is only in that book."

"Wait a second, I think I found it," Kwan interrupted.

Both Sam and Tucker rushed to his side expectantly.

"Where did you find it?" Sam asked frustrated.

"…It was in the Romance section…" Kwan mumbled, having been desperate and decided to take a quick break by looking up romance books to look back up to read later, just to ease his unrequited feelings for a certain halfa.

"What idiot put it there?!"

"Never mind that, Sam," Tucker cut in. "Let's just find it."

"Got it!"

"Let's go back then."

Bookmarking their find, they ran back to the haunted house, finding Dash and Jazz there with all the equipment and Lancer and Julian sitting on the couch ready for an update. Guy and Roger were still out, trying to keep track of the Fright Knight.

"We found out how to defeat him, but we need a pumpkin," Tucker told the others.

"And this chant," Sam opened the book to the page, showing it to them.

"The Fright Knight will go back to wherever he came from, but we need to somehow get the sword from him," Lancer concluded.

"Only we can't touch the sword since we're human. And we're going to need Spectra and the others to help fight the Fright Knight, especially since we might not be as much damage to him as they could be. Danny's usually the one fighting the ghosts and _she_ has a hard time," Sam pointed out.

"And why would Danny fighting the Fright Knight be different than anyone of us? Other than the obvious she has ghost experts as parents and she would therefore be privy to experience. Jazz is here too, and she's older than Danny," Julian frowned.

Sam, Tucker, Kwan, Dash and Jazz started getting nervous.

"Well, Danny is actually in to that kind of thing and she follows after our parents more than I do," Jazz laughed nervously.

"There's more to it than that," Lancer joined Julian in frowning.

"Much more. Spill, kids," Julian narrowed his eyes at them.

"Danny's Phantom," Dash blurted out and all the others groaned and glared at him.

"Come _on_, Dash. Why would you just blurt it out like that?" Kwan snapped.

"Since when did he find out?" Tucker muttered.

"Jeez, you just find out recently and you can't even keep it secret for at least more than a month," Jazz guessed the timeframe.

"They're adults. It was an automatic reaction to answer them," Dash mumbled. "Besides, can't they help _because_ they're adults?"

"No," Sam glared at him. "Adults get in the way. They either don't listen, ignore us, or hinder us in some way and then we get stuck into more trouble."

"That's not true, Miss Manson," Lancer cut in. "If I had known about all this, I wouldn't be so hard on Danny falling asleep in class so often nowadays. We can't help if we're kept ignorant. We'll listen if you give us a chance. Persist if you must. But we would never just turn a blind eye if help is needed."

"Especially since it's Danny," Julian glowered. I don't know where you get those ideas about adults, but I'm not going to just leave Danny to fend for herself. Now we need to start figuring out what are we going to do. We can't touch the sword? Alright, Dash, Kwan and I will handle that. We'll come up with a play that'll get the pumpkin soaring straight for the sword. We just need a pumpkin. Spectra, you and the other ghosts distract the Fright Knight for as long as you can, and have him aim his sword at a direct angle that can help us when we throw the pumpkin so it'll plunge through and stick. Foley, you're with Jazz and Loran, uh, I mean Lancer handling the ecto weapons and helping the ghosts out."

"_Loran_? Lancer's name is Loran?" Kwan whispered to Sam and Tucker, who snickered.

Lancer looked blankly at them, his eyebrows raised. They quieted immediately.

"I'll call up Guy and Roger to find out where they and the Fright Knight are, and see if they can find a pumpkin," Jazz added.

"Man, this is really hard," Tucker complained. "Doing all this. Things like this make me feel like we take Danny for granted."

"We'll do something special for her when we get her back," Sam muttered, dragging Tucker out the door.

They all once again split to get ready and do their parts, when they met back up at Amity Park, where the Fright Knight was currently battling against Penelope, Bertrand, Klemper, and Wulf. Lancer and Tucker were aiming the ecto gun and Fenton Foamers and firing away rapidly, while Jazz was aiming more carefully with the Fenton Bazooka. Most of the humans had arrived there in the rebuilt Fenton RV (which was rebuilt pretty fast), so Tucker had turned on the Ghost Shield and recalibrated it to a stronger density. They still weren't sure if it could hold the Fright Knight in, but so far they haven't found out because he hadn't attempted to escape. He was probably toying with them.

Roger was actually maneuvering the Specter Speeder really well in the air, while Guy was expertly shooting from the passenger seat.

"If they end up being Air Force too, while they're at it, I'm going to puke," Dash glared daggers.

"What _can't_ they do?" Kwan echoed irritably.

"Not now, boys. Do we have our moves memorized? Because time's up. We don't have any more time to waste," Julian got them going.

And then Dash picked up the pumpkin and all three of them began running. They kept tossing the pumpkin back and forth carefully, especially when the Fright Knight aimed a blast at whoever had the pumpkin at the moment. Thankfully, the ghosts were doing a great job distracting him.

Kwan was in possession of it, darting from side to side, when the Fright Knight threw a blast at him. He jumped to the side and tucked into a roll, jumping from it to continue his run. When the intensity of the blasts were increasing towards him, Dash darted to his side and he tossed it to him.

When Lancer snuck up behind the Fright Knight with Tucker and tackled the ghost, they saw Julian hidden nearby. Dash readied his arm and threw it and hoped to hell his Coach would catch it and that his throw would make the distance. Julian caught the pumpkin as soon as Lancer and Tucker were struck by the knightly ghost. Penelope saw that and moved to fly in front of the Fright Knight to not only block his view, but put him in the perfect path for Julian's throw. Sacrificing herself and disappearing as well, Bertrand doubled his efforts in fury and the concentrated attack was just enough for the Fright Knight to miss the pumpkin until the last minute, the Soul Shredder plunged right into the top of the grinning Jack'O Lantern.

Sam was luckily saying the chant over and over, ending the sixth time right as the Fright Knight thrust his sword into the pumpkin.

The Fright Knight screamed, yelling as he was sucked into the pumpkin and everything was turned right. Wulf caught it and all of them waited expectantly. Soon enough, first Penelope, then Lancer and Tucker reappeared, all three shaken but seemingly fine.

The entire group waited with baited breath.

Finally, Danny appeared, sitting limply with a disbelieving stare on her face and not acknowledging the others.

Started 2/6/10 –Completed 2/7/10


	11. Bella Detesta Matribus

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set as an AU, genderbending fic.  
Spoilers: For episode S1.16 ("Maternal Instincts", series continuity order) and mention of future episodes.  
Warnings: Allusions to rape, violence, cursing, sexual situations...  
Pairings: Danny/Dash, Danny/Kwan, one-sided (most of the time) Danny/Ghosts, various odd smidgens of Danny/OCs, future pairings to be announced...

A/n: This originally was supposed to be a big Maddie/Danny mother-daughter bonding chapter, but somehow Vlad snuck in and stole the limelight. And basically made it mostly about him. Damn Packers fanatic.

Chapter Eleven title: _Bella Detesta Matribus_** –War is the Dread of Mothers**

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Eleven: __Bella Detesta Matribus_

Jazz had rushed to Danny as quickly as she could. She'd comforted her, but she hadn't responded. Everyone else stayed uncertainly back until Julian marched forward apprehensively and gently took Danny from Jazz's arms, rocking her back and forth as she mumbled and cried into his chest, clutching at his front.

That was three days ago.

Danny was even worse than before Halloween. She didn't even tutor Kwan and Dash anymore. She just sent copies of her notes to them. She went in and out of school and locked herself in her room the rest of time. She spoke to no one, didn't speak up in class, said nothing to the rest of her family, and avoided her friends. She did talk to Julian, but whatever was said between the two was kept between them and everyone else was left out of the loop. Guy and Roger had to leave to return in time for their first week of shooting, but they kept periodical contact by emailing Danny persistently. Fortunately, her non-communication seemed not to include emailing them back, even if her emails seemed subdued.

Jack immediately laid blame on Kwan (and Dash when he learned and remembered he was another boy Danny tutored and was close to), agitated and not his usual goofy self. Maddie wasn't so sure, but she'd been reserved about the matter, wanting to find out from Danny herself. Jazz hesitated on telling her parents anything, not sure what to say to explain about Danny with so many details she would have to cut out.

The opportunity came for Maddie when an invitation by the DALV group invited her to a science convention. She could bring Danny with her and try to get her youngest daughter to talk. Only, Danny was just staring out of the window of the plane blankly.

"Isn't this going to be fun, sweetheart? We'll spend time together just like we used to when you were younger."

Maddie's smile faltered when her daughter didn't respond. But she reinforced her smile and began chattering about all the things they could do. She lost her smile entirely when the pilot told them that he was jumping off the plane and that the plane was going to crash land in ten seconds.

She grabbed her unresponsive daughter and hurried to the cockpit, which was entirely empty. She cursed, ignoring the slight uncharacteristic move on her part, and found two parachutes. It would be no use trying to fly the thing with the steering jammed. She adjusted them on herself and her daughter and quickly jumped out of the plane. They rapidly started floating down, the pilot appearing and grinning sadistically at them.

"Now's the time to inform you you have just been the victim of a cruel hoax," and then he turned into a ghost and flew away, laughing maniacally.

Mother and daughter landed roughly on the ground and Maddie started setting camp at the clearing they'd landed in. She set up the wood tent, used two capsules to create sleeping bags, and created a fire.

"We'll have to stay here the night and start looking for a way to a phone or freeway tomorrow morning, okay sweetie?"

"Okay, Mom," Danny smiled weakly at her before returning to staring at the fire.

If she found out those two boys _were_ behind her daughter's withdrawal –well, she'll show them exactly why she was a ninth degree black belt in Jujutsu.

She started hunting for something they could eat, reluctantly leaving her daughter there. But she did leave the Specter Deflector around Danny's waist for her protection, missing the flinch Danny gave once the belt was on.

When she was starting to come back, she shivered in ill omen. Something was wrong.

"Danny," she muttered.

She expertly climbed a tree and began traveling back that way, hoping to get back to the campsite quickly. Dropping down in a crouch, she eyed the messed up area with an experience eye. The tent she made was torn apart and the wood scattered, and the sleeping bags were strewn apart. Her eyes spotted a trail.

She eagerly began tracking it. Finding Danny just in time, she grabbed her daughter's wrist and yanked her into the tree she was in. In turn, she leaped out and took out the double-sided Fenton lightsaber and began attacking the ghosts and driving them back single-handedly.

"Boo," Maddie grinned viciously at the line of remaining ghosts.

They screamed and ran away.

Maddie then turned to her daughter worriedly, her attitude flipping.

"Danny, are you okay? Oh, I hope that Specter Deflector worked," she cooed over her daughter.

Danny looked dazedly at her, "Wow, Mom. That was _cool_."

Maddie stopped and blushed, smiling at her. That was her daughter not only complimenting her, but finally reacting.

"Thanks, sweetie. Now, we have to get out of here before those ghosts come back. Hopefully, we'll run into something really soon."

"Right, um...can I take off the Specter Deflector? It's kind of really heavy and tight around my waist," Danny hesitantly asked.

"Oh, of course! I'll protect you better than this thing anyway," Maddie said, taking the key and unlocking the belt. She put it away, missing the entirely relieved sigh from Danny, and started leading them through the wilderness, cutting through the bushes and branches with the Fenton Machete. Finally, they come across a lavish cabin.

"Danny! Let's see if we can stay here for the night. Hey, maybe they have a phone," Maddie held Danny's hand and trotted up to the door, knocking surely.

The door opened to reveal an annoyed looking Vlad.

"What is it –Maddie and Danny! What on earth are you two doing here?" Vlad immediately turned cheerful.

"Vlad!" Maddie was surprised. "Danny and I were supposed to go a science convention together when the pilot abandoned us and turned out to be a ghost. Do you mind us staying awhile and using your phone?"

His face seemed to just brightened, "Yes, yes! Of course you can stay here! Unfortunately, I don't have a phone. It…short-circuited not too long ago and I decided to just spend time out here before just using one of my available vehicles to go home in."

"I see. Well, maybe I can get that phone working," Maddie said as Vlad let them in.

Danny glanced around idly, hunching her shoulders and trying to curl in on herself.

"You must be tired, Danny. How about I show you to your room so you can sleep, while I show your mother to the phone system?" Vlad smiled softly.

She blinked tiredly at him.

"Okay…"

He left Maddie to wait for him in the kitchen, leading Danny around dizzying hallways, reaching a door.

"You'll be staying here in the meantime. I hope it's to your liking?" Vlad asked, letting her in.

She yawned, "I'll be fine."

"Sleep tight, little badger."

Before she could really ponder the odd nickname or glance around her new temporary room, she crashed onto the bed and fell asleep quickly. When she woke up, she blinked several times in confusion and sat up, glancing around the strange room. It was as lavish as the outside of the cabin that she remembered seeing. The elaborate wardrobe set next to her window was mahogany, as was the desk and chair under her window. The curtains were burgundy and looked to be made of heavy velvet, and were currently mostly closed and blocking out the sunlight. The four poster bed she lay on was king-sized, with wine-red sheets and fluffy pillows.

"One day I'm going to get rich and throw my money around too," she muttered, plopping back down and throwing an arm across her eyes.

Forcing herself to get up, she walked out of her room and followed the smell of food, ending up in the kitchen where she saw Vlad humming and cooking pancakes, a pink frilly apron secured on his front.

"Uh...morning?" she tentatively greeted.

"Danny!" he whirled around, waving his spatula around dangerously. He smiled widely at her. "Morning to you too! Pancakes?"

"Butter?"

"In the fridge."

"Fantastic," and she went to the fridge and took the bucket of butter, traveling with it to the island counter behind Vlad and the stove. Utensils and plates were out and a stack of pancakes was put in front of her.

"Where's Mom?" she asked, spreading the butter on her first pancake generously.

"Still sleeping, I assume. We had a late night locating and then figuring out what was wrong with the phone lines. Your mother thinks she can get it fixed in a week."

Vlad finished cooking and set the rest of the pancakes on the other two plates, and placed a couple more on Danny's. He placed a hand on Danny's shoulder for a quick, friendly squeeze when she flinched violently and jumped out of her chair, letting it clatter to the floor loudly. She flushed red when she realized what she did.

"Sorry," she muttered as she righted the chair and gingerly sat back on it.

"Right," Vlad said cheerfully, masking his confusion.

He sat down opposite her and began setting up his pancakes as well.

"Do you want me to get Mom so we can eat together?" she offered uncertainly.

"No, that's quite alright. Let her sleep in. So how has school been?" Vlad was back to being cheerful.

"It's fine. I'm doing well. I'm tutoring two boys, though I haven't…really been able to tutor them," she was close to mumbling at the last part, but he still caught it.

"I see. Did you like the motorcycle I sent over?"

Danny's eyes finally lit up and her entire demeanor seemed to brighten up.

"Like? I love it! Thanks so much! It's my baby. I call it Harley, just because I love it so much that I gave it a name. But it's the DC character Harley, not the motorcycle brand."

Vlad smiled in amusement. "Well, I'm glad you enjoy it. I wasn't certain on which one you'd like, but my first thought when I saw that one was that it suited you. And Harrington and Richards were able to help this past Halloween?"

Danny scrunched up her eyebrows, "Who?"

"Ah, excuse me. I assumed you knew their last names. Roger Harrington and Guyton Richards, I meant."

"Oh! Yes! They were…a great help," she forced a smile on her face, trying not to think back to that night.

He noted her pause, but she didn't elaborate and he decided to wait before pushing the issue.

"So nice place you've got here," Danny started out. "Mind if I explore?"

"No, no. I don't mind at all. Go ahead."

He watched her walk out before turning back to his plate.

"That's the first time she's talked in a full conversation in over three days. Yesterday was the first time she talked to me, and it was only a couple of sentences. You're the only other person she's talked to," Maddie quietly walked in, surprising him.

"I don't understand. What happened to her?" he frowned.

She sighed before sitting down, "I couldn't get the full picture. I was hoping I could when we were supposed to have our mother-daughter bonding week at the convention, but since that turned out to be a hoax…All I could piece out was that there was a ghost attack Halloween and that's it. She was acting a little like this beforehand, so I know something happened before then. But she's not talking to anyone."

"Well, maybe you can use your stay here to get her to open up? I'll help however way I can," Vlad suggested.

"If you really don't mind us staying here for a while…?" Maddie asked hesitantly.

"Not at all. I'm completely fine with it."

This was a block. Vlad wasn't sure what had gone on or what had happened. He never actually checked Danny's personal past, only her history in grades and just scientific data he could use. He knew her personal favorite things, like color and food. But maybe he should've delved more into her personal history. And begin spying on her because it would be easier to keep track of what's going with her. If something was going on with his unknowing protégé than he would have to find out.

And heaven forbid, if this is all to do with a boy he'll just bribe the bloody idiot (or more likely threaten) to stay with Danny.

So when he found Danny later, lazily playing with the pool table in the lounge, he cleared his throat nervously. She jumped slightly, turning to face him.

"Vlad! Sorry, I just…I know I shouldn't be messing around here –"

"Nonsense. You play?" he asked, gesturing to the pool table.

"Ah, a little bit," she smiled embarrassedly.

"Who taught you? Or are you self-taught?"

Her face darkened, "No…I was taught by a boy I knew…His name was Jack Madden."

He noted the reaction.

"I play a little as well," he commented, taking another pool stick and aiming. He shot one straight into a hole.

Danny laughed and smirked, "New game?"

They reset the balls, Danny shook them, and Vlad broke and then started the game. They played for awhile before Vlad approached the issue.

"You like dirt biking?"

Okay, not the issue he wanted to get at, but he had to seem approachable and friendly.

She blinked at him.

"Is this an intimidation tactic, trying to get me to miss the ball?"

Vlad snorted and rolled his eyes, "No, just a question. That you should answer."

"Ah, right. Well, I've never tried it so I wouldn't know. I think I would."

"Brilliant. I have a pair of ATVs in the cabin, if you and your mother would like to try them."

"Ohh, nice…Right after I beat you at pool, old man."

"Old man! I'll have you know, the 40s are the best years in one's life. You'll see!"

They finished the game, with Danny narrowly beating Vlad, and headed past the cellar to the basement where Maddie was working.

"Mom! Are you here?"

"Right here, sweetie," Maddie called her over.

"Mom, Vlad's got two ATVs we could try out," Danny excitedly beamed.

Maddie's mouth formed an 'o' in surprise.

"That's nice, sweetie. We could…try them later? Don't you want to hang out with me and help me with the phone lines? We could talk?" Maddie hopefully asked.

Danny's face shuttered and her smile straightened into a firm line.

"Nah, it's okay," Danny said blandly. "I'm tired. I think I'll go take a nap."

Her daughter turned on her heel and practically ran away from her. Maddie sighed and turned depressed.

"You two can still go, Vlad. I'll work on this for awhile and maybe I'll track her down and I don't know. Go for a hike."

Vlad studied the love of his life, and then looked back at the direction Danny had left in.

"Is there something going on?"

Maddie winced, "It's kind of a family problem. Well, it's Danny's, but it has the rest of us upset as well. It's really her business to tell others since it's so sensitive."

"I see. Is there anything I can do?"

She hesitated, but plunged on. "Actually, if you two still go out dirt biking, I was hoping you could talk to her. I think she might actually talk to you, if this morning was any indication."

"I'll see what I can do, Maddie."

He still wasn't sure of what was going on, but he had a feeling he was getting closer to the truth. To start, he headed for her room and found her sitting on her bed, with one leg curled to her and her arms around it, and the other lay straight on the bed. She was staring off into space, further worrying him.

"So…we're still going out?" Vlad forced a grin and a cheerful attitude. Leave the confusion and the need to forcefully prod behind for now. Must win her over…

Danny blinked in confusion before her eyes settled on him.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Do you still want to go try those ATVs out? Your mom gave the go ahead," Vlad kept up the cheer, but didn't overdo it.

"Oh, sure! Sounds fun," she smiled, gaining back some life.

He noted the distinction clearly. Last night was almost a lifeless zombie, this morning seemed like the girl he met back at the reunion, and for a second there the lifeless zombie had returned.

"We'll have to move it manually out of the garage before we can drive it from the grounds. There's a spot near here that's perfect for dirt bikes and we can drive them all over the place."

They headed to the garage to do just that and soon enough they were off, having changed into more comfortable clothes. Vlad was uncharacteristically wearing a t-shirt (Green Packers, of course) and beige cargo pants, though he refused to not wear Italian-made shoes so he settled for Italian-imported boots. Danny just sniggered and wore a plain white t-shirt with a red oval on the front, and blue jeans with sneakers.

When they reached the place, Danny immediately went into a huge jump, squealing excitedly once she pulled it off.

"Good grief, girl! You're going to give me a heart attack!" Vlad yelled over the roar of the engines.

"Uh huh. You're just jealous you can't do it," Danny lightly teased.

Vlad huffed, "This old man can do _better_," and he showed off by doing a double jump.

Soon enough, the two of them became competitive and started trying to outdo the other in daring stunts. When they finished, they were sweating slightly, but abnormally not as much as a regular human would be by that time. They stopped and Vlad tossed Danny a bottled water.

"That was fun," Danny breathed, trying to catch her breath.

"Mmhm," Vlad answered incoherently.

"What's up?"

Vlad studied her closely, "Danny, what's going on? Why weren't you the same last night as you are now?"

She quieted, though inwardly she was surprised at his bluntness.

"It's alright if you don't want to talk to me, but you _should_ talk to your mother though. She loves you," he prodded gently.

"Yeah…Yeah, I guess I should," but her voice was hesitant.

"Good. Let's race back. Whoever loses has to cook dessert for tonight," and he immediately hopped onto his ATV and went off.

"That's cheating!" she shouted. "You got a head start!"

"We never said there was no cheating!" he yelled behind him as he tore off.

"It's implied in everything! No cheating!"

* * *

"…This isn't fair," Danny pouted grumpily, stirring the flour as she poured a little more milk into the bowl.

"You lost," Vlad stated cheerily. "Therefore I win and we all get to have dessert from you. It's payback for winning at pool."

"I should've bet on that," she muttered.

"Danny, I'll have to agree with Vlad…if only to get you to cook dessert," Maddie grinned.

"Torturers, both of you," Danny huffed.

"Don't mind her, Vlad," Maddie laughed. "Besides, you'll love the cake she's making. It's the Danny special. She…never makes it anymore," she trailed off, glancing at her daughter who focused on what she was doing and staying quiet.

Ah, another clue to the mystery.

"So, Mom…are you still working on the phone lines?" Danny asked nonchalantly.

Madded hesitantly nodded.

"Oh…um…can I help you out later?" Danny mumbled.

"Of course, sweetie! That would be great!" it was more than what Maddie was hoping for from her daughter.

So later, after the meal and Maddie was back to work, Danny joined her but unknowingly so did a certain billionaire. Yes, he said it was alright if Danny didn't want to talk to him, but he never said he wouldn't spy and find out anyway.

"I love you, sweetie, you know that, right?" Maddie murmured.

Danny uncomfortably fiddled with some tools but nodded.

"So you know you can tell me anything?"

Danny jerkily nodded again.

"Danny…what happened that's got you so upset?"

Her daughter was silent and when a minute passed by, Maddie didn't think Danny would say anything.

"…Before Halloween, in the ghost invasion, two ghosts overshadowed Kwan and Dash…and Dash was overly aggressive and he was trying to force himself on me, and Kwan just stood there and didn't do anything. He was just watching, even after I told him about what happened with Jack not too ago. Then I found out they were overshadowed, but even though it wasn't them I still see their faces. I know they're upset that I'm not talking to them, but I can't help it.

"And then on Halloween, you know there was an actual ghost attack then too, right?"

"Yes, I remember. Your father and I were never able to find it."

"I was one of its first victims," Danny muttered. "His sword can strike a person and send them to a dimension where they face their worse fears."

Maddie tensed, leaning forward and hugging her daughter tightly.

"It was Jack and the locker room all over again," Danny cried into her mom's arms. "Except it was different. He stopped when I was screaming and hitting him to stop, he was still sweet and he took me out and he was as caring as ever with me and in the end I still ended up sleeping with him," she babbled in a rush, crying harder. "If that stupid sword sent people to their worse fears, I don't get why all of that would happen to me instead!"

"Oh, sweetie," Maddie murmured, rocking her back and forth. "I don't think your fears are as straight forward as you think they are. I know you're afraid of it happening again…but your worse fears are that if you'd protested more he would've stopped…or that if you said yes and was more willing, then things would've been fine. That either way you would have gotten to keep him. Sweetie…I think your worst fear of all is that you still love him."

Danny shook her head vehemently.

"No…no…he raped me…I hate him!" and Danny ran away, not wanting to hear any more.

Maddie sighed.

Meanwhile, Vlad's blood was boiling. He had a feeling it was some stupid situation with some boy, but he didn't think it was something like this. Forget bribing the idiot, he was going to make that little bastard pay.

His test could wait for another time. He had other obligations to fulfill –things much more important.

When he found Danny, still silently steaming, he found her brooding in her room, sitting at the vanity set and scowling angrily at the mirror.

"Brooding doesn't do anyone any good," he said softly from the doorway, startling her.

She swallowed harshly, "I'm not brooding."

"From where I'm standing, that's a load of bullshit."

Danny smirked lightly, "Should I be telling Mom you're using naughty language?"

But Vlad stayed serious.

He walked closer, entering her room, and noticing the slight and almost unnoticeable tensing of her body as he came closer. In fact, he wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been paying close attention and had actually looked for something like it to happen. He wondered if she had been doing similar things before, but he just hadn't noticed it.

As he stood behind her, Danny staring straight ahead expressionlessly into the mirror, he observed her through the mirror. She had neither her mother's grayish eyes nor Jack's dark ones. And if one were to look closely, her eyes were shaped like almonds like a cat's, which neither of her parents had. Her hair was as dark as Jack's, but fell straight around her, ruining what could've been taken as a trait of her father's. It was also soft and silky, unlike Jack's coarse hair or Maddie's that frizzed and curled if it became too long. Her face was similar to Maddie's, but slimmer –almost aristocratic, slender and feminine in a way that wasn't like Maddie's motherly structure. And Maddie had a curvaceous build. Danny was more slight, small but perfect for her short height. She did inherit her mother's curves, but for her small overall stature, Danny was definitely petite. She definitely wasn't like Jack in that department. And to be truthful, even if he hated to admit it, Jack radiated a happiness that Danny didn't have, and Maddie was a warm and affectionate soul. Danny…Danny seemed almost cold. Aloof. Maybe even detached at times. With all of that, Danny didn't seem like her parents at all.

How alienating.

He reached over her shoulder for the brush, ignoring the hidden flinch and grabbed all of her hair together, placing it behind her back and beginning to brush through her locks.

"It's not unfathomable to see you're uncomfortable with me, _Petrushka_."

"That's not true," she muttered. "And why are you calling me that? First, 'little badger' and now whatever that means."

"You'll differentiate the times I call you which name," Vlad waved it off. "And Petrushka is a name famous for being the name of a puppet that was used by its owner and eventually was destroyed, coming back to haunt the man and thereby getting its name. Russian name, Russian opera. I'm Russian. Vlad –Vladimir," he waved it off again.

"But it makes no sense to call me that," Danny scowled.

"Oh, you'll get it in time, Petrushka."

He was insisting and this time, Danny had a feeling her stubbornness wouldn't match up to his.

"As I was saying, you're uncomfortable. With me."

Danny stayed quiet, so he continued.

"By meaning, I've seen you relax in my presence once you're forgotten yourself and just let go. That means, it's not me personally. It has something to do with me," Vlad reasoned. "It's not because I'm rich. You don't seem bothered to be staying in lavish conditions or when I buy you things. It's not because I'm an older person, because you seem to like conversing and interacting with me once your guard is down. The only thing I can think of...would be because I am a _man_."

He saw her stiffen up while he kept up his gentle brushing.

"I see I'm right on the money. Now, I won't pry –" _'Even though I already know what happened,' _" –but I do know something of what's wrong. So no details, you don't have to worry about me knowing and interfering so much. But since I know _something_, you are free to talk to me. Alright, Petrushka?"

"A-alright," she tentatively agreed.

"Good girl. Now," he took her hair and took several minutes to elaborately twist and then pin it up, "Your mother wants to keep working for tonight. She wants to spend all day tomorrow with you, however. I suggest you do so. But why don't we have a glass of wine before bed tonight?"

Danny seemed to balk at spending time with her mother, especially knowing the questioning she would get, but looked questioning herself at his request.

"I'm not old enough to drink," she stated plainly.

"Of course I know that," he raised an eyebrow. "But I am sure your mother won't mind so much. It'll only be a little glass."

She hesitated but then shrugged. "Do you have any Red Bordeux? Guy and Roger let me take sips from their wine glasses. I liked it."

"Meritage. Good taste. I have a bottle in the cellar. Why don't you go to the lounge and I'll get the wine and glasses?" Vlad suggested, carefully brushing some of her loose hair behind her ear before absentmindedly trailing the tips of his fingers from her ear and then down to the nape of her neck. He blinked before inwardly blanching, snatching his hand away and both of them sporting embarrassed blushes.

"I'll just be right back, hunny," he muttered.

She winced, "Please don't call me that. No one does. Well, except Roger but he's a very, _very_ loose exception. And he's flirting. So you saying that would just be weird."

"Right…"

Danny shrugged as he fled, doing as she agreed and already heading towards the lounge with a slow gait.

He was slowing down as he reached the cellar, frowning to himself. This was not going to be an easy task. His protégé-that-didn't-know-she-was was too fragile at the moment. He would need to move even more carefully if he wanted to convince her to side with him. He had hoped to move things along and start by showing her that he too was half-ghost, but now didn't seem like a good time once again. His alter ego was already known to her as an "evil" entity and if he were to reveal himself, it would not go over well. His bond to her was tentative at best, he'd have to wait a little longer to build up the trust that was needed for her to be willing to understand –and most importantly, deliver herself to him. Her obvious jadedness and unwillingness to trust or become close to anyone would be the biggest hinder.

He would have to make himself one of the exceptions.

But that required work, work that he was all too willing to undergo. In time, he would get what he wanted, but right now his little badger's needs came first. Danny was more important than his little plans.

He paused and shook his head, backtracking.

He was growing soft.

* * *

"Hey, Danny," Maddie softly called out, sitting on her daughter's bed.

Danny groaned into her pillow.

"Hangover, sweetie?"

Danny shook her head, tiredly getting up and yawning.

"No, I just hate mornings and getting up early."

Maddie rolled her eyes, "But once you're up, you're up. Like a freakin' energizer bunny, hopping around and chattering like you're on caffeine."

"Ah, but you love me," she answered back cheekily.

"That's true…maybe," her mother teased.

"Mom!" Danny whined.

"So, I was thinking…we could spend the day together and hike up the mountains? We could eat up there, have a picnic. And then whatever comes up. We can come back to the cabin when it's late, or whenever we feel like it. We could even spend the night up there, if you wanted to?" she hesitantly offered, watching her daughter closely.

But Danny was already alert and chirpy.

"Sounds fun, Mom. When do we leave?" Danny asked.

"As soon as we're ready."

After that, they pretty much were rushing and ready to go in just minutes. Vlad bid them farewell and to take care, and then they were off.

For pretty much the entire day, the two hiked up the mountains, taking breaks to eat before finding a good clearing and having a picnic for lunch. Then they continued until they were at the top, sun setting already. They decided to set camp, starting a campfire as well and using it to heat up their food. They had their dinner and then they were lying under the stars and looking up at them from the comfort of their sleeping bags.

"Mom, do you really think…think that I'm still in love with _him_?" Danny started out softly, before spitting out the last word in anger.

"Sweetie, love is complicated," Maddie reluctantly said. "Even if you don't belong together, or something's happened, no matter the hurt or the bad things, you don't just suddenly stop loving a person. It's a difficult and irrational idea. In fact, you may never ever stop loving someone. It just lingers…"

"Like the saying 'you never stop loving your first love'?" Danny sneered, glaring up at the sky.

"…That's true most of the time, I suppose. Maybe not all the time. You never know, sweetie. Time will pass. Maybe you won't feel the same way when time passes you by. You might find someone else, and that first love will eventually fade."

Danny sighed morosely, angry with the revelations but deep down acknowledging them. Instead, she turned on her side and huddled closer to a pleased Maddie, who wrapped an arm around her daughter and held her close.

"Night, Mom."

"Night, Danny."

They woke up with the sun, starting their climb back down in companionable silence, occasionally breaking it to talk about the odd thing or two.

"I was thinking I would be done fixing the phone line pretty soon, and then we can go home," Maddie revealed.

Danny coughed in amusement, "Mom…there are cars, motorcycles, and those ATVs…not to mention there's even a _helicopter_. Vlad would've let us borrow any of those to get home, if we'd just ask."

Maddie paused and blinked.

"…Well, I might as well finish the phone lines since I'm almost done with them anyway. Makes no sense to just leave it unfinished," her mother sighed in exasperation. "And we could just finish the week off, like we were supposed to do anyway at the convention."

Danny snickered.

They reached the cabin and they split up, Maddie back to her task and Danny to wander around.

Vlad found Maddie first.

"Maddie, I see you are back from your overnight hike. How was it? And Danny is well?" Vlad kept any of his interest from being too obvious.

She gave him a tired smile, "She's alright. Exhausted and emotionally spent, but alright."

Vlad nodded. "…I'm glad. I had a talk with her the night before last, and she seemed distraught. Better afterwards, but she was very upset when I found her in her room. I noticed she…flinched and tensed up when I came near," he added casually.

Maddie winced, "She's…a little sensitive around men."

"Something must've happened then," he murmured, not pushing anymore.

She sighed, "She seems comfortable around you though. She was able to talk easily to you as if whatever had happened hadn't happened."

"There were still problems, of course, but yes. You're right. Danny did seem to talk easier with me," Vlad's eyes lit up, filing that away into important details.

"Well, I have a theory on that," Maddie hesitantly started. "She's the same way with Guy Richards and Roger Harrington, when she told me about them last night. And then there's Coach McKinney, but he's a lot more complicated. There are two boys she tutors but there's something there that's blocking her from being really close to them, unlike how she feels like with the three men I mentioned and yourself. It's just that…from the obvious, none of you are jocks, and all of you are clearly older men."

Maddie grimaced at that, "It's not a mother's dream, let me tell you. Having her daughter be so free with older men, but I see it as at least Danny isn't completely afraid of men. Those differences are what I believe helps Danny be so comfortable around you and the others. _He_ was older than her, but he was still young and in high school. The four of you being significantly older makes the difference for Danny and subconsciously allows her to feel at ease around all of you."

"I see," he murmured. "If there is anything I can do…"

A dark look passed Maddie's face, "This is awfully underhanded and if she knows I put you up to it, Danny will be very angry with me…but it'll help. I know it will. But really, there's just nothing else to be tried and I just think something extreme has to happen for her to get passed this."

"…Maddie," he hesitantly started out. "What on earth are you asking me to do, and why am I getting a bad feeling about it?"

She looked pleadingly at him, her beautiful gray eyes tearing up and making his heart ache.

"Vlad, it's clear my daughter is more than comfortable around older men. So please…_kiss her_."

His rapidly beating heart that raced for her, suddenly stopped and felt like it just became a train crash.

"Maddie," he croaked out. "You must be _joking_. This is your daughter and I'm more than just a couple years older than her. I'm old enough to be her father!" Which was, ironically enough, part of his vision.

Maddie grimaced, "I know. But it's been a while for Danny to be comfortable affectionately with another man because she can't move on and a part of her is still clinging to the past. Since you, as an older man, would be able to come close enough for her to be okay with showing affections with, she'd let you kiss her. Probably. And that might be a step towards healing and letting her become more comfortable in showing affection with the opposite sex again."

And she looked at him with that beautiful face of hers again.

That's why, an hour later, Vlad had mustered up the courage to be doing this.

"Ah, Danny, you're back," Vlad's voice said from behind her.

She whirled around, raising an eyebrow at his frazzled appearance.

"I've been back. Did you see Mom? She was supposed to come around and we were supposed to train in one of the extra rooms. She was going to start me on Jujutsu. Oh well, I'll just go train in the other arts for now, I suppose," she muttered to herself, walking away.

"Ngh," he made a strangled sound. "Danny, can I come watch?"

She stopped and turned to look at him in confusion.

He just smiled strangely.

So Danny shrugged and nodded, before turning and continuing her way.

In the gym room he'd had recently installed, she took off her sweater and stood in the middle of the cushioned floor with a tank top and matching stretch pants. His eyes drifted to her top before he looked away in horror, realizing what he had been about to do.

'_Damn you, Maddie! Wrong Fenton! WRONG FENTON!'_

"So, uh, what are you going to practice now?"

"Hm…I think I'll go for Tae Kwon Do for now," she mused aloud.

"Oh…how are you in it?"

She shrugged. "I'm a Yuk dan in it. That's a sixth degree black belt," she clarified when she saw his confusion. "In Wing Chun, which I've practiced for much longer than the others, I'm a Yinlong-ba duan –dan in International terms –which is a Silver Dragon level. I've just recently gotten into Muay Thai, and usually ranks come from a fighter's fighting record. But since Muay Thai fights are seldom in the U.S. there's a ranking system that uses tassels to judge ranks. I'm about Blue Tassel, so I'm ring ready but not yet able to be at Red Tassel level, where I've actually proven myself in the ring and proficient in the art. I've practiced it, but haven't gone against another Muay Thai fighter in the ring, so I haven't advanced yet."

And when she began practicing, her fluid movements capturing his attention, he couldn't help but admire the dangerous grace and the smooth movements.

He nearly groaned aloud.

This was all wrong. What was Maddie thinking? Now he was agonizing over the whole thing. And after she'd just mentioned it, all he kept doing was involuntarily noting attractive qualities about the younger Fenton. Though, to be truthful, this probably started long before Maddie had pushed the ideas into his head. Probably around the time of the odd brush-touch incident earlier.

Displacement. Transference. Oh, Sigmund Freud would definitely be loving this.

Still observing, he couldn't help but draw odd comparisons. While Jack would definitely be some rambunctious chimpanzee –large, dangerous but idiotic, and Maddie would be some type of bird of prey because she was always hawk-eyed, fluid, and smart as well –smugly circling her prey and ruthlessly attacking it, Danny would once again be different from her parents.

She was a quiet danger. Jack would rush and rage. Maddie would proudly leap forward, showing off. Danny would be in the shadows, quietly observing before striking. Grace-wise, Jack and Maddie were more lions, while their daughter was the quick cheetah or more likely, the jaguar that moved deliberately and silently. The two older Fentons were completely out there, dangerous in their own way, but in the plain and public eye. Danny, in a way, was more dangerous because she hid. So dissimilar…like fire and ice. Danny was definitely very cold, while her own parents were so passionate and full of life.

Perhaps, being half-dead has influenced his little protégé more than either of them would have thought.

"I, uh, know your secret," he blurted out.

She stiffened up and he mentally hit his head. A little more specific would be nice, especially since she probably was thinking more along the lines of that boy-who-he-still-had-to-plan-the-murder-of.

"You're half-ghost, Phantom to be exact," he said, forcing himself to speak matter-of-factly.

She was halfway between relieved and terrified.

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about," she squeaked out, for once sounding young and vulnerable, instead of the predator he suspected her of being underneath it all.

That's right. A predator. That's exactly how he wanted to describe Danny. Jack and Maddie were for all intents and purposes, dangers because they were hunters and gatherers, all for the pack mentality. Danny was the predator, a danger because she lived on survival instinct and an instinctive killing nature–an animalistic edge her parents didn't have.

Vlad shrugged, forcing his thoughts aside.

"I went to college with your parents. I can recognize ghosts. Even after…the accident," his lips curled, "while I tried and pretended to have gotten over the ghost hunting endeavors I had gone into with your parents, secretly I still was interested and kept pursuing it. I have an obstacle course here, if you'd like to test out your powers and record your statistics?"

After reluctantly accepting, and excitedly going to the course where she then expertly maneuvered through it and was giddy in pride and accomplishment after, he threw away his pride, his rationale, and whatever morals and ethics he had left…

And promptly kissed her.

Started 2/7/10 –Completed 2/22/10

A/n: I just like torturing Vlad…


	12. Inter Nos

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set as an AU, genderbending fic.  
Spoilers: For episode S1.17 ("Lucky in Love", series continuity order) and mention of future episodes.  
Warnings: Allusions to rape, violence, cursing, sexual situations...  
Pairings: Danny/Dash, Danny/Kwan, one-sided (most of the time) Danny/Ghosts, various odd smidgens of Danny/OCs, _sort of_ Vlad/Danny, future pairings to be announced...

A/n: I love fan service. Don't you all love fan service? I've been influenced too much by anime and the likes. Be prepared by large amounts of fan service…

Chapter Twelve:_ Inter Nos_ –**Between Us**

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Twelve: Inter Nos_

He could feel her trembling, softly pressing his lips against hers. Her slim body tensed, before in a surprising move, she relaxed against him. She didn't wrap her arms around him. She didn't kiss back. But she was comfortable and not panicking.

_And she wasn't hitting him with those deadly moves she had been practicing earlier._

_After a couple more moments, he slanted his lips and pulled back several times before coming close again to kiss her several more times. When he was going to finally pull back and run away, she surprised him again by throwing herself into the kiss, which landed the both of them on the floor. She lay comfortably on top of him, running her tongue across his bottom lip, before taking it between her teeth and tugging._

_She pulled back and fell backwards, sitting on the ground haphazardly as she stared at him with reddened lips and wide eyes._

_Dear God, the straps of her tank top were off her shoulder. How in the world had that happened?!_

_He coughed embarrassedly, "Um…don't tell your parents anything, eh? That was, uh, unexpected…"_

_One, Maddie didn't want Danny to know she had any part in this attempt at rehabilitation. Two, if Maddie knew how much he actually enjoyed that, it would ruin any chances he had of stealing her away from Jack._

_Never mind that he did __**not**__ want Jack to know that Vlad had just made out with his daughter. Jack was a bumbling idiot, but a dangerous one when it came to his family, especially his daughters. Especially __**Danny**__, after the rape._

_Smarter, richer, and more handsome Vlad is, if Jack found out about this, he would be dead._

Danny, confused and unsure of what had happened, kept quiet. But while she was confused, she wasn't exactly upset or unhappy. Merely…curious.

Her mom had finished up and then they'd burrowed the helicopter to fly back.

Danny's cell phone rang.

She took it out and looked at the number, seeing one of Vlad's contact numbers on the screen. Her face reddened and an involuntary smile crept across her face. Maddie watched closely.

"Vlad, hey. We were just there?"

He coughed nervously, "Yeah, I was just checking on my phone lines… Ah, they work!"

The two talked a little bit more before Danny hung up and saw her mom's cheery visage glancing at her.

"Wait a second…Danny, you had your cell phone this entire time?!"

Danny blinked before laughing. "Yeah, I guess I did."

"You're on that thing all the time, and yet we forgot about it until now?" Maddie joined her daughter in laughing.

They were at their home in no time, and Danny caught the odd glimpse of his sister riding a ghost out the door and beating it upside the head, wearing one of their mom's hazmat suits all the while.

"Strange. What in the world did we miss?" she muttered.

"So Danny, since it's the weekend, you can just enjoy yourself. You only missed a week, but your two male friends are coming over to drop them off later. Principal Ishiyama and Mr. Lancer know about it, and have okayed it. Mr. Lancer's also extending the due dates on the work for you."

"Cool, Mom! See you!" and she bounded up the stairs, happier and normal than she's been in a while.

Dash and Kwan were very surprised to see that, more so when Danny greeted them with a hug each.

"Thanks, guys! Do you guys want to stay and work on schoolwork? I haven't helped you guys out for a while. Do you guys need help?" she chattered quickly.

Dash grinned, "Yeah! That'll be great!"

"Okay! Let's go work in my room," she grabbed their hands and dragged them behind her, the two of them working to keep up.

They'd never been in Danny's room, minus the time Kwan was possessed. Kwan may have been there, but it wasn't really him at the time. But now, not only were they going to see Danny's room, they were going to be in it alone. With her.

Even if nothing happened, being in there meant something to them.

"Danny, we were planning on going to Floody Waters tomorrow. Sam and Tuck are coming, but since you're back now, we wanted to know if you wanted to come too?" Kwan asked eagerly.

"Sure, sounds fun. What time and can I catch a ride?" Danny grinned at them. "I'd take my Harley, but she's gotta have a tune up."

"Yeah, I'll be driving," Dash agreed. "I'll pick up Kwan first, since he's closer, then we'll come get you. Around 10'ish? That good?"

So, the next day, Dash and Kwan drove over in his rusty but sturdy red pickup truck. The two of them were wearing t-shirts and shorts over their speedos, and were already sweltering hot, waiting to dip into cool waters. Dash parked in front of Danny's home, and Kwan stepped out to knock on the door and get her. She stepped out with a bright smile that had their hearts beating quickly in their chests, though they were slightly disappointed to see her wearing a similar t-shirt and shorts to theirs. At least she was squished sitting between the two in the truck, letting accidental brushes of her skin against theirs and for to be practically pressed up against them both.

They met up with Tucker and Sam at the water park, where their earlier disappointment fled when Danny shed her boyish clothing and they saw her wearing a flattering baby blue bikini.

"It matches her eyes," Dash commented dreamily, gazing blissfully. Kwan drooled.

Sam and Tucker rolled their eyes, while Sam distracted Danny from the two jocks' idiotic admirations.

"You owe me," Sam mouthed over her shoulder towards the two. Tucker snickered. "You two should be collared by Danny."

"We should," Dash nodded absentmindedly. "Can we do that?"

"Where can we get collars?" Kwan muttered dazedly.

Tucker sighed.

Danny jumped into one of the pools, while Sam hid under the shadows of trees, her black ensemble creating a dark image of her.

"You two should join her," Tucker threw out with a smirk. "I'm going to walk around and see if there are any girls that are in need of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation." The spectacled boy sprayed his mouth with breath spray, before jogging away.

Dash and Kwan stared at each other before gulping. Braving themselves, they stripped and jogged over to them. Danny glanced over and blinked, before a wicked smirk crossed her face.

She actually wolf whistled at them before winking mischievously.

"Now, aren't you two fine?" she kept up the smirk.

"Hot, more like it," Dash smirked back.

"Danny, Danny, Danny. Are you flirting with us?" Kwan smirked as well.

Whatever Danny had done or gone to over the week seemed to have made a vast improvement on her liveliness

She shrugged playfully, "Two handsome males, in speedos, both with a cute bum and nice abs. What can I say? I'm enjoying myself."

They slipped into the pool beside her, and she laid her elbow onto the curve of the pool, laying her chin on her hand. Her eyes drifted lazily over to them.

"Mmm, yum," she licked her lips. "Nice pecs. I do so have a very lovely view in front of me."

They blushed; really surprised at the way she was acting. Not that they were complaining.

"Well, maybe we should give you a better view," Dash teased, leaning closer to her front as Kwan slipped behind her. She only tensed slightly, but her expression didn't change.

"Like the view you're getting?" she raised an eyebrow, and for a second he was confused until he looked down and almost got a nosebleed from the eyeful of Danny's breasts he got.

Kwan unabashedly leaned over her shoulder to share.

Danny snorted and laughed, but she fortunately wasn't freaking out or running from them.

Then there was screaming and Danny shivered.

"Damn, a ghost," she glared.

Dash and Kwan looked at each other before grabbing her arms and then plunging themselves into the water. She took the hint and used their bodies and the water as cover to change into her ghost form.

A half hour later, Danny had finished up and was wearing a scowl on her face.

"Shadow. If I find Johnny, he's going to get creamed, adoptive brother or not," she growled.

"Oh, Danny!" Paulina's voice sang from behind her.

Danny froze and turned around to face her, even as Dash, Kwan, Tucker, and Sam ran up behind her.

"P-Paulina…"

The popular Latina smiled widely at her, "I had no idea you were Phantom! Oh, Danny!"

And the girl practically lunged and hugged Danny to death.

"This is so cool! I won't say anything! You have my word," Paulina pecked her cheek.

She turned and traipsed off, leaving behind a stupefied group.

"You couldn't pick a more horrible person to find out about your secret," Dash groaned. "Paulina couldn't keep a secret for anything."

"Oh just great!" Sam frowned.

"What are we going to do?" Tucker nervously asked.

"We'll just have to wait for now," Kwan suggested. "We can't exactly corner her without looking suspicious, and we don't want Danny trying to sneak after her. It'll look bad. We're trying to _not_ have Danny be Public Enemy Number One, right?"

"No one would ever have to know," Sam muttered suspiciously.

"Okay, so we wait," Danny conceded reluctantly.

The first thing the next day, Danny hurried to school, walking unfortunately. Her bike, at least, was in the shop. She'd be able to get it after school.

Once in Casper High, she glanced around nervously, just waiting for the stares and whispers. She was surprised to find none at all. She met up with Sam and Tucker, and then Kwan came in with Dash. Dash reluctantly separated to go find the popular group, but they were consoled with the fact that he might be able to find Paulina first.

"Danny, can I speak to you?" Julian cut in, surprising the foursome with his appearance.

"Ah…sure, J –Coach McKinney," Danny changed his name at the last second, remembering the others were there and not knowing they knew how close the two were.

He led her to the gym and into his office, where he sat heavily down on his chair and ran a hand through his hair wearily.

"Jules…are you okay?" Danny bit her lip, unsure how to make of seeing her older friend so tired.

"Danny, can you come here?" he murmured, and she walked closer. He reached up and put his hands firmly on her waist, staring her surely in the eyes as he pulled her closer and then had her straddling his lap.

"J-Jules!" she might have let out a squeak there…

He didn't answer her, taking one of her wrists and kissing it softly. His dark blond curly hair tickled her arm as he bent over it, his lips grazing upwards in a sensual brush against her skin. And when he looked up at her, his normally cornflower blue eyes had darkened.

Her lips parted in confusion and lust.

It was strange. Before, she had been too freaked and uncomfortable to be so sexual with another man. But if she thought about it, she hadn't been like that with older men, and it had been more noticeable around her parents' school reunion and when she'd first met Guy and Roger. And after the strange kiss with Vlad, she felt freer and more…_less _confined in her own body. Like that kiss had freed her somewhat from her fear.

So she more than welcomed the kiss Julian gave her as his hands moved to her bottom and squeezed before lifting her up and depositing her onto his desk, scattering papers and objects. She confidently wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down on top of her as she started to lie back farther on the desk.

"Danny!" Paulina's voice screeched from the doorway.

Danny whipped her face away from Julian's, even as he buried his face into her neck, and she looked in horror at the Latina. She couldn't jump away with Julian's heavy weight on top of her and since Julian was refusing to move away…

"Get off her, you pervert!" Paulina screamed shrilly, stomping over and pushing Julian off of Danny. She grabbed Danny's hand and began dragging her off.

"That…that wasn't what it looked like," Danny said weakly.

"Mmhm."

"Please don't anything about this either," Danny pleaded.

"Of course not, Danny! Why would I ever?" Paulina's eyes were wide. "I don't want to get you in trouble."

Paulina pecked Danny's lips this time, before once again trotting off like nothing was the matter.

* * *

"I can't believe they're calling you Inviso-Billie, like the MJ song," Tucker shook his head.

Danny just brooded.

"'Invisible –Inviso-Bill, only we had to make it Bil_lie_ (we took that from Michael Jackson's Billie Jean) because she's a girl,'" Sam mocked the reporter.

"Danny, you've been around for a year and calling yourself Phantom, and _everyone_ knew that. _Now _they decide they want to give you a nickname?" Kwan rolled his eyes.

"I need a publicist," Danny mumbled.

"And a bodyguard while you're at it," Sam snickered, looking behind Danny.

Danny scrunched up her eyebrows before turning and then paling when she saw Paulina smile and giggle, wiggling her fingers daintily in a 'hi.'

The halfa hesitantly waved back.

"Everyone! Danny and I are totally girlfriends! Come here, BFF!" Paulina announced loudly, making everything come screeching to a halt and for everyone to stare.

Pauline flitted over to the isolated group, grabbing a hold of Danny and dragging her away from her friends and over to the A-list table, leaving Kwan and Tucker to gape while Sam fumed.

"Well, at least Dash will take care of her," Kwan gulped. "Though he might not be much use against the wrath of Paulina…"

With Danny, unfortunately sitting next to Craig Harf but happier that Dash was on her other side, she fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat. Relieved, but not much, when Paulina aggressively pushed Craig to the side to sit next to her, Danny was surprised when Paulina smiled widely and looped her arms around one of hers.

"Danny, let's go shopping later. Just the two of us, okay?" Paulina kept smiling at her dreamily.

"Um, I have to tutor later…" she mumbled.

"I can come with you!"

And so began the strangest episode in her life so far.

Paulina wasn't joking. After school, she'd jumped onto Danny's Harley, waiting for her to climb on in front of her, which Danny reluctantly did so. And then they were in her home and Paulina was sitting at the table in her kitchen when Kwan and Dash arrived.

She stuck around, watching closely as Danny tutored the two boys, shooing them out when they were finished, before taking Danny and heading straight to the darker haired girl's bike and waiting.

"Let's go eat at the Nasty Burger," Paulina promptly requested.

Well, Danny was being nice about the requesting part…

In there, she had nervously sat in a booth with Paulina, with everyone staring at them. She felt uncomfortable, but she was too nervous about her secret getting out to let Paulina out of her sight for one second.

"Danny, sweetie, doesn't this feel right?" Paulina fluttered her eyelashes.

"Ahh…"

"You'll see. We'll wait for awhile and then we'll tell the world we belong together _forever_."

"Ahh…"

They ate and then Paulina forced her to share a banana split with her, before dragging her back outside to her bike. Danny drove Paulina to her house and was about to take off again when Paulina shoved her helmet off and kissed her. In shock, Danny didn't move away for a full 30 seconds before Danny jerked back and stared wide-eyed at the popular girl.

Danny rode to her house in a panic.

The next day, Danny reluctantly went to school and traveled the hallways in fear. She had nothing against gays or lesbians, or having a girl crush on her, but this was _Paulina_. Having Paulina's attention on you, especially like that, was like having a spider drool over a prey caught in its web.

Danny was doomed.

"Oh, Danny! Let's get to class together!" Paulina sing-songed from behind her.

She winced and sighed, resigning herself to be metaphorically chained to the Latina for the rest of the day.

"Hey, Danny. Can I have your hall pass?" the hall monitor stopped her.

The one good thing about Paulina's sudden fascination with her?

The A-list benefits.

Cheerfully handing the hall monitor her hall pass, she gleefully saw two spaces left.

She walked towards Paulina a little more happier than she had previously.

Kwan, Sam, and Tucker halfway winced and sighed.

"Should we save her?" Tucker asked.

"No, I don't want to go anywhere near the Latin Spider," Kwan shivered.

"The Latin Spider?" Sam rolled her eyes.

"Looong story."

But Kwan's semi-cheery mood disappeared and they looked over to see why. Danny had finally reached Paulina, the other popular kids gathering around them, including Dash.

"…I thought you had a truce with him?" Sam asked gently.

"Yeah, but it doesn't change the fact she's over _there_, spending more time with Dash than here with us," Kwan growled, avoiding looking over there by angrily rummaging through his bag.

'With me' went unsaid, but the other two supplied it in their minds and looked at their Asian friend in pity.

School ended and Danny was dragged off to go to the mall.

"…"

"So, you wanna go to a Goth Poetry Slam session?" Sam asked Kwan, eying him nervously.

His entire body was tense and the corner of his left eye was ticking pretty badly.

Tucker stifled his laugh and pretended to cough instead.

"Yeah, sounds good," Kwan mumbled.

They headed over to Skull and Lurk's, where they were seated reluctantly and many of the clientele eyed the jock with skepticism. After a couple of poetry reads, Kwan stood up abruptly.

"I wanna try," Kwan announced stoically.

He traipsed up to the stage and many of the patrons were ready to boo and snicker. Sam groaned in horror, while Tucker winced in pity.

"I die in my lying wait  
I scream inside my body  
Your beauty is beyond my reach  
But I want to take you anyway

"I'd rather be the monster  
Than be the Prince  
I'd rather be the Beast  
Than be the gentleman

"I'm tired of screaming inside  
I want to scream at you  
I'm feeling the tears under my skin  
And I want them to echo in you

"I want to be the disease in you  
Because you've infected me too  
I want too much from you  
But I don't know how to be sweet  
And I'm just rotten inside."

Silence and then Kwan stoically held up two fingers.

"Part two.

"Fucking bitch  
I want to kill you!  
She's my girl  
And she's just not into you.

"I'd want to rip your throat out  
Feed it to my dogs  
Because you're one too  
And I wouldn't be sorry to see you gone.

"Best friend, best friend  
Fucking asshole  
I want to beat the shit out of you

"Break your nose  
Run you over  
Throw you off a building

"I'd wrap the both of you  
Your necks in my hands  
Choke the life out of you  
And watch your eyes bulge

"The blood'll run out of your faces  
The breaths stop  
And both of you will stop from your delusions

"She's mine, you little fuckers."

Kwan grinned happily and bowed before cheerily jogging back to his table, to a gaping Sam and Tucker. The store erupted into applause, some of them clapping his shoulders or patting his back, and some of them even coming over to praise him.

"Kwan, I had no idea you had it in you," Tucker breathed out, his eyes wide.

Sam watched him in awe and surprise, before her expression calmed and she looked at him sympathetically.

"The first one's about Danny, isn't it?" Sam asked softly. "And I had no idea you're feeling that way about Paulina and Dash."

Kwan just shrugged.

"Almost makes me feel sorry for them. Almost," she smirked. But then she had a soft look on her face again. "I didn't know you felt _that_ strongly about Danny."

"You guys know?" he asked, muttering.

"Dude, it's kind of hard not to notice," Tucker grinned understandingly.

Kwan sighed but smiled in thanks at them.

They stayed there awhile, listening to some more poetry before they left, many of them praising Kwan again and asking him to come back and that's he's welcome there any time.

"I can't believe they like you so much," Tucker chortled.

"I can't believe you were such a hit," Sam echoed Tucker.

"Oh come on, guys! I can be dark too," Kwan pouted.

They just laughed at him.

* * *

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Danny winced. "But I actually had a good time, Paulina."

Paulina gave her a big smile. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head up and waited expectantly. Danny blinked in confusion. The Latin girl sighed and rolled her eyes, leaning close and forcing a kiss onto Danny before skipping off to her house.

"Ta-ta! I'll see you tomorrow, darling!"

Groaning in confusion, Danny gunned her motor and rode her bike home.

Jumping up the stairs and heading to her room, she threw her backpack to the floor and collapsed onto her bed. Something clattered against her window. Blinking, she looked up and watched her window. After a few seconds of nothing, she was about to lay her head back down when another two pebbles hit her window. Warily walking to her window, she looked out and saw someone she didn't expect to be clandestinely trying to reach her.

Julian was nervously hiding near a garbage can, and glancing around furtively.

She quickly opened the window and called out in a whisper to him. He waved and climbed up the fire escape ladder, while she moved out of the way so he could climb through the window.

"Jules, what are you doing here? And why the hell are you sneaking around?"

"Because I've been waiting to do this," he murmured before he kissed her.

His tongue lightly brushed against her lips before parting them, and she moaned into his mouth. He maneuvered her onto her bed and climbed on top of her, his hands gliding down from her shoulders, brushing against the sides of her breasts before firmly planting themselves onto her waist.

She shivered and pushed him back.

"Wait a second, my ghost sense has been going crazy lately…" her eyes widened before she looked accusingly at him. "That's why. You and Paulina are acting strange because the two of you are being possessed. Alright, which ghost are you?"

Julian's body shuddered before Johnny 13 floated out of it. Danny promptly socked the ghost's shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?" he looked wounded at her.

Danny glared at him, "That's for letting Shadow create trouble earlier. You're lucky I don't hit you again for possessing Julian and for making him make out with me. So spill. What the hell's going on?"

Johnny sighed and then started talking about sneaking into the human plane and taking in the sights with Kitty. Then he talked about Kitty getting angry at him for some reason, before flying off and then he finding out she went and possessed the girl Paulina. Now the two of them had been competing for Danny's affections.

"I can't believe you two are fighting over me," she muttered. "Never mind that. Come with me, we're getting Kitty."

She transformed and flew with Johnny to Paulina's house, letting Julian stay on her bed, snoring and unaware of what happened. Once in Paulina's home, she located the girl and before anything else could be said or done, she took Kitty out of Paulina's body and dragged her behind her, with Johnny trailing behind them in the air grumpily.

They landed into Amity Park's park, where Danny set the two down and glared at them with her hands on her waist.

"This is very stupid and childish. Grow up, you two. Kitty, sorry but I don't think I'm into girls. Johnny, you're supposed to be like a brother. Enough said, you guys," Danny huffed.

"But –" Kitty started, but Danny interrupted.

"Alright, tell me your side of the story, Kitty."

Kitty looked at Johnny grumpily and Danny rolled her eyes, grabbing her hand and stomping off with her a distance away. Kitty told her that Johnny had been looking at other girls, and everything else that had happened and how Kitty felt. Danny sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

They went back to Johnny and Danny observed the two tiredly.

"Talk together, you two. Work it out. Otherwise, I'm sending you to Penny. Spectra, I mean," Danny said dryly. "And Johnny, look at another girl other than Kitty, I'll rip your balls off. Good, guys? Good. Now go back to the Ghost Zone," they reluctantly did as she asked and she destroyed the Fenton gadget that allowed the two ghosts to be in her world.

Reluctantly, she checked up on Paulina, who was sadly awake by the time she came.

"Inviso-Billie?" Paulina asked in awe.

Danny grimaced, "Phantom. Let's all stick to Phantom, please."

"You saved me again, didn't you? Oh, thank you!"

Danny gave an awkward smile before flying off quickly. She entered her room, transformed back, and was about to collapse again onto her bed when she noticed the vaguely amused Julian smirking at her from his spot, one of his long legs stretched and the other bent slightly as he leaned against her headboard.

She blushed and stuck his tongue out at him.

His smirk widened, but he still didn't say anything.

"Um…hungry?" was all she could come up with.

"In a little bit. I'm a little confused as to why I'm in your room, at night, on your bed. And why I can't remember much."

Danny groaned, "You were possessed by a ghost, who was having a tiff with his girlfriend and decided the two of them would fight over me in retribution."

He raised an eyebrow, "Oh, do tell. Tell me every little detail."

She never really wasn't one to not talk to Julian, so she told him every little sordid detail reluctantly. In the end, both of them were blushing heavily.

"…I, uh, d-did that? With you?" Julian coughed in embarrassment and Danny winced. "Well, might as well cross more lines. I'm too tired to walk the long way home, and it's way too late. And I don't want to be caught getting into a taxi. I'm sleeping here tonight, sweetheart. So…come here?" he held out his hands and grinned unabashedly, waiting for her. "I'm cold. Warm me up?"

She rolled her eyes and fell into his arms, cuddling up to him. She was fully awake, but didn't feel like moving at all.

"I think I could get used to this."

She forced herself to have enough energy to sock his arm.

"Ow!"

* * *

"I am _so_ happy to have you back, Danny. You have no idea what it's like to be stuck with two boys," Sam paused. "Wait, never mind. I guess I know what it's like to be in your shoes."

Danny shook her head, but smiled.

"Unfortunately, Paulina's hero-worship and slight crush on you has become a full-blown infatuation," Kwan commented, and the small group looked over and watched as Paulina gazed happily at her Phantom shrine in her locker, sighing before lightly pecking the picture and then closing her locker.

"Woah, I didn't think Paulina really was into girls," Sam's eyes were wide.

"You guys are blowing this out of proportion," Danny muttered. "Paulina just…really, really likes my ghost half."

"Yeah, _like_ like," Tucker snickered.

Danny pouted.

"You know, as much as I'm happy to be back with you guys, it reeeallly sucks at the same time. I had one more space left on my hall pass! I was so close to a free yogurt."

"You gave back the A-list package?" Tucker sympathized with her.

"Yeah, had to. But oh well, until my next hit in popularity."

"Danny," Dash called out as he came closer. He nervously stood in front of them. "I saw you only had one last space so I got it stamped…um, here's your free yogurt."

He handed it to her before turning tail and walking away quickly, leaving three of them to stare stupefied at his back and the other to fume.

Started 2/22/10 –Completed 2/23/10

A/n: Happy to see a happier Danny? Facing your fears can do wonders. Not that she's completely over it, but you know…

The poems? Ahaha, those were mine I made just for this chapter. If, for some reason, you want to use them…(shrug) just ask first.

And if you want to see how my Julian looks like, put Charlie Bewley in his place. That's my Jules. Ehehe…


	13. Alma Mater

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and as an AU, genderbending fic.  
Spoilers: For episode S1.18 ("Life Lessons", series continuity order) and mention of future episodes.  
Warnings: Allusions to rape, violence, cursing, sexual situations...  
Pairings: Danny/Dash, Danny/Kwan, one-sided (most of the time) Danny/Ghosts, various odd smidgens of Danny/OCs, _sort of_ Vlad/Danny, future pairings to be announced...

Chapter Thirteen:_ Alma Mater _–**Nurturing Mother**

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Thirteen: Alma Mater_

Oh, they were more than late. And they were going to be in so much trouble because they've been late so many times. Dash may be popular and a jock, but one time too many was too much for even him. Kwan wasn't popular any more, so he had nothing to fall back on.

"You're late."

They winced and looked sheepishly at Tetslaff.

"Into the class, boys. I'll let it off for now, but _only_ because we're doing something special in class today."

They shuffled into the room, ignoring the stares and hid their grins at seeing open seats on either side of Danny at the back. They slipped in beside her, Kwan greeting her, Tucker, and Sam while Dash nodded to each of them.

"Today, kiddies, I have a special treat. All of you are going to be paired up and taking care of one of these puppies for the week," Tetslaff held up a flour sack with an old-fashioned diaper slipped on it.

She began pairing them all up; carting them out of the class once they were paired and had a 'baby.' Soon enough, it was confusingly only Dash, Danny, and Kwan left.

"Alright, there was an odd number of kids in class, so the three of you will have to work together on this. You also get to test out the new automated life-like baby dolls we got shipped with. They've been debating about audio and video in it, so you'll have to remember about that and then they can decide whether they want to keep those extras in the doll or not by seeing how much of use it is. Danny, you're a good student and trustworthy, so we're entrusting the doll prototype with you. Make sure these buffoons don't trash school property. Oh, and I had it customized since I knew the three of you were going to be working together," she grinned and then handed them a car seat and they looked in to see the fake baby in it.

It mostly had Danny's features, but had Dash's blond hair, Kwan's brown eyes and his Asian slants (though it was shaped slightly like almonds like Danny's eyes).

"I now pronounce you men, wife, and baby girl!"

"Can we kiss the bride?" Dash asked.

Danny hit his and Kwan's arm.

"Hey, I didn't say anything!" Kwan pouted.

"You were probably secretly agreeing with him."

Kwan grinned at her. At least by now, Danny knew they were attracted to her. At least they hoped she did. If she thought they were just joking around…they pushed down their despair…

They met up with Sam and Tucker at Danny's locker, the two carrying a flour sack carefully in their arms while Tucker tickled and murmured endearments at it.

"I don't get it. A flour sack?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

Tucker shrugged, "It's supposed to teach us about shared responsibility."

Danny had the image of Dash throwing a flour sack at Kwan. She turned to glare at them.

"Do _not_ throw the baby like a football," she hissed.

They looked at her strangely.

"The only thing this is teaching me is how pointless this assignment is," Sam glowered. "Oh wow. You guys get to have a doll!"

Dash smirked, but rolled his eyes. "Only reason we do is because they trust Danny enough to have her test out the prototype."

"Football, really. As if we would harm our child," Kwan muttered, rocking the baby protectively.

It cooed.

The group stared at him, but Tucker nodded.

"Come on, Sam. Let's take our flour sack of looove, and leave these lovebirds to take care of their own kid."

Tucker held up the sack to his face and rubbed it against his cheek, cooing at it and tickling its 'tummy.'

"Tucker, you're taking this way too seriously!" Sam yelled as she ran after him.

"…Kwan, please don't tell me you're taking this as serious as Tucker is," Danny deadpanned.

"No, uh, of course not," Kwan said nervously.

"Good, 'cause you were worrying me there."

Later on, they were with Sam and Tucker again at the Nasty Burger. Tucker was once again rocking the baby and taking pictures of it, talking baby talk to it as if it were a real baby.

"You're really taking this way too seriously," Sam muttered.

"Don't listen to your mommy," Tucker cooed at the flour sack.

Kwan and Dash sat on either side of Danny, with the baby doll in the car seat that they set on a baby chair near them. It was thankfully quiet.

"It could be worse, Sam," Danny said sarcastically, taking a sip lazily from her drink. "You could be that guy," and she shoved her thumb in the direction of the restaurant's mascot that was getting beat up.

"Oh, let's take family photos with Nasty Gnat!" Tucker started pushing Sam with the flour sack over there.

"…Maybe we should take pictures too. It is extra credit," Dash muttered nervously.

"Hm, yeah. Sure. You guys need the grade."

"Y-yeah, we need the grade," Kwan laughed just as nervously.

They traipsed off closer, Kwan whipping out a camera from out of nowhere and had someone take several pictures with Danny holding the baby between the two as they wrapped their arms around her and leaned closer.

Then the mascot was attacked again and Tucker huffed.

"Come on, Sam. We have to protect the baby from such negativity," the techno geek glowered.

"_Flour sack_, Tucker," Sam sighed.

But then there was screaming and the flour sack and doll started crying.

"Idiots! You're scaring the baby!" Tucker and Sam yelled, after she'd rushed to their side to help cradle it. She blushed and cringed away, while Tucker shot her a knowing look.

"Oh, great. Ghosts," Danny muttered. "At least you two know my secret," she looked over to her partners. "I'll be back."

Dash nodded, while Kwan murmured to the baby, "It's okay, sweetie. Mommy's going to work. She'll be right back."

Danny stared strangely at him. He shrugged. "Audio bonus?"

She shrugged before running away to transform. She took care of the Box Ghost easily, coming back to see Tucker changing the flour sack on a hi-tech changing table.

"Where did you get all this stuff?" Danny looked incredulous.

"I announced the birth of our 10 pound sack of joy on the internet. The online geek community can be very generous."

He started cooing again to the flour sack, "There, there. Daddy's right here. Daddy loves you!"

"Tucker, flour sack!" Sam growled, snatching the sack from him. But then she held it and her eyes softened and glistened, licking her thumb to wipe its 'cheek.'

Dash was cradling the baby nonchalantly, watching the interaction and unknowing he looked the same. Except much more real with the baby looking life-like.

"…We should go home," Kwan announced. "Come on, Danny, Dash."

He started ushering them away.

"But my bike!" Danny protested.

"Dude, we're leaving our cars here, you know that, right?" Dash asked, still holding the baby.

"Yes, but none of the cars are that safe for the baby," Kwan commented. "Let's just take a family walk home."

"But you brought it here in your car!"

"Nah, I actually walked here with it. My car's broken down and wouldn't be able to be safe for our child anyways."

"Kwan, _you're_ starting to take this too seriously."

Soon enough they were at her home.

"We're home, Grandpa, Grandma!" Dash called out.

"Dash, what are you thinking?" Danny hissed in a panic.

"Ah, Danny, don't treat your baby daddies like this," Kwan pouted.

"Baby daddies?" Jack growled.

"Grandma? Grandpa?" Maddie entered the kitchen behind her husband.

Kwan and Dash quivered, but then Kwan beamed and shoved the doll towards Danny's parents.

"Meet your daughter! Isn't she a cutie?" Kwan cooed.

"Mom, Dad, don't mind them! It's a school project. They're taking it way too seriously," Danny glared at the offending boys.

The doll started crying.

Kwan snatched the baby away and Dash darted over, and the two started cooing even more over it.

"Shhh, Mommy didn't mean that," Dash hovered over it as Kwan rocked it.

Danny sighed in frustration as her parents looked on in amusement, Jack reluctantly so.

"What did you guys name her?" Maddie smiled.

"Name? Danny, sweetie, we forgot to name our child!" Kwan panicked, glancing at Danny.

"Let's name her Isabella, like from Twilight," Dash suggested cheerfully.

He was stared at.

"What? I like it. Uh, the name not the series," the blond blushed.

"Well, I like it too. I think it's a good name," Maddie agreed. "I always wanted to name a child Bella."

"Bella! That's so cute! Isn't that right, Bells?" Kwan cooed over the baby.

"All this cooing over a doll," Danny sighed.

"It's not just a doll, Danny. It's our child," Dash pointed out seriously. Kwan nodded in agreement, and Danny stared at them both.

"Alright, let's just get the tutoring over with and you two can get home. I'll take first shift at 'baby' duty," Danny shook her head.

Dash and Kwan looked aghast.

"Danny! This is about shared responsibility! As the father –one of the fathers," Kwan amended after a look from Dash, "I am not going to abandon you or our child. I'm going to do my part and be readily available and be a man."

"Right, and therefore we're going to sleep here," Dash added.

"You guys can't sleep here! You haven't even asked!" Danny snapped at them.

"Oh, don't worry," Kwan reassured her. "We'll camp out in your yard."

"Actually, I don't see why you can't sleep in here. The two of you don't have to sleep in our yard. Right, Jack?" Maddie gave a look to her husband.

Jack scrutinized the boys.

"You can't sleep in the living room. Maddie and I will be working all night, this entire week. But…you two can sleep in Danny's room. Just keep the door opened," he growled.

"Thanks, Mr. Fenton!" Kwan and Dash chorused.

"You can call us Mom and Dad while you have the baby," Maddie smiled widely.

"Okay! Thanks, Mom!" Dash and Kwan echoed again.

"Mom, Dad," Danny groaned, pulling at her hair.

"Take care of our grandchild, alright? And I'll reward you with fudge, Jack…"

"Fudge!"

Her parents trailed out and Danny glared at them.

"Danny, sweetie, the baby needs to know and feel her parents are happy and in love," Dash looked at her pointedly.

Danny threw up her hands.

Later, they were watching a movie in Danny's room, after Danny had insisted on getting her bike and Dash came with her so he could get his truck, sitting on the bed with her in between them. Danny was absentmindedly rocking the doll, tenderly brushing her fingers against its fake hair.

"…You guys are taking this way too seriously," Danny muttered for the umpteenth time. "Even more than Tucker is, sadly enough."

"Says you, you who's tenderly holding onto the baby like its real," Kwan shot back without venom.

"…Shut up."

"The baby, Danny. Not when she's here," Dash reprimanded.

"You don't want Bella to hear her parents fighting," Kwan agreed with the blond.

Danny sighed, but her lips quirked up in fondness.

"Sorry, baby. Mommy's tired and exasperated with your daddies."

The boys beamed happily.

Kwan was laying his head on her lap, letting her rest the baby slightly against his head. Dash was curled up on her other side, most of his torso behind her as he rested his forehead against her side's lower back.

They fell asleep like that, only since the boys were heavy sleepers they slept through the baby's crying and so Danny kept waking up and taking care of it.

Morning came and Kwan woke up first, confused to see he and Dash the only ones on the bed. He looked around and saw Danny slumped in her chair, holding the baby semi-tightly in her arms. Feeling guilty, he gently took the baby and put it in its makeshift crib. Then he took Danny and carried her to the bed and laid her next to Dash, pulling the blanket over her.

He stumbled downstairs sleepily, hearing slight noise coming from the basement and assuming the Fentons were still working. Looking in the fridge, he grabbed the eggs, the frying pan, and set about making scrambled eggs.

A few minutes later, Dash bumbled down the stairs, barely awake.

"Morning," Kwan greeted civilly.

"Truce is still being held, ain't it? And we have our 'wife' and 'kid' to think of, Kwan," Dash muttered.

Kwan sighed, "Yeah, sorry…"

"What are you cooking?"

"I wanted to make breakfast for Danny, but the only thing I can make is scrambled eggs."

"I can do toast?"

"Okay, scrambled eggs and toast it is."

They were finishing up when Maddie and Jack staggered out of the basement, raising their singed eyebrows to see the boys cooking and setting up the table.

"Morning, Mom, Dad," Dash greeted, not looking up from where he concentrated intensely on organizing the toast extravagantly on the plates.

Dash had four toasted cut slices of bread in a circle on the plates, the corners touching each other, and had buttered them up with a touch of whip cream in the middle of each of them. Kwan had melted American cheese and Swiss cheese onto the eggs and placed them in the middle of the circle of toast, having cooked them with a dash of accent and garlic salt.

"Morning," Kwan greeted as well; glancing over with a smile as he carefully poured orange juice and water into glasses.

"Ohh, a simple gourmet breakfast!" Maddie laughed.

Dash shrugged shyly, "We wanted to make breakfast for our baby mama."

There was crying up the stairs.

"I got it," Dash said. "You're still busy and I'm done. I better go before Bella wakes up Danny."

"Bells must be hungry. Can she eat eggs and toast, you think? Nah, probably just set up one of those bottles they gave us to feed her."

Dash nodded, washing his hands and wiping them on a table before hurrying up the stairs.

"You boys are certainly getting into this project," Jack grunted.

Kwan placed the filled glasses onto the table.

"Well…it's a nice fantasy, isn't it? After all, both Dash and I really like your daughter, but she's a little clueless about it so we're just milling about uselessly in despair. So I suppose it's nice to pretend it's real for as long as we can. After all, being married to her and having a kid with her? A dream come true," Kwan bluntly said cheerily.

"Oh, I didn't expect such an honest and frank answer," Maddie almost gaped.

"Ah. But I think it would be best. Good to be honest and truthful with my future in-laws. This is all good practice."

They looked at him in amusement.

He shrugged wryly, "A guy can hope, can't he?"

Dash came downstairs, rocking the baby and holding a bottle in its mouth.

"Danny's still sleeping. What time do you think we should wake her so she can get ready? She looks tired."

Kwan frowned, "How long do you think it'll take for her to get ready?"

"I can answer that," Maddie cut in. "If she's in a hurry, she can take as long as 5-10 minutes."

"We'll wake her up in a half hour then," Dash suggested.

"Food will grow cold though," Kwan sighed.

"We can keep it fresh with a Fenton Fresher," Jack grudgingly spoke to them.

"Cookie?" Kwan offered.

Jack immediately cheered up and accepted it, chomping down on it.

"How will we get to school though? Danny gets on her bike, but that's a one seater, two at most and the car seat for the baby isn't compatible. And you insisted on us walking here from the Nasty Burger because neither of our cars were 'safe enough' for the baby, so I'm assuming you'll say the same thing now about us going to school."

"We'll walk," Kwan said shortly.

"Oh, come on! We can fit in my truck –"

"Absolutely not. That's for three people at most. Where will our baby be? We can't fit the car seat in it. We are not endangering our baby."

"You can drive the Fenton RV," Jack interrupted, rolling his eyes. He was getting sick of their bickering. "I'll show you how to install the car seat."

"Speaking of baby stuff!" Maddie left before coming back with a plethora of baby stuff.

Dash and Kwan shot over to it, rummaging through excitedly.

"Ohh, we can set up the crib later when we come back from school –"

"Look at this onesie! It's so adorable!" Kwan held up the baby clothing, where it was pink and had 'Daddy's Girl' on the front in a darker pink.

In seconds, they'd dressed up the doll in the onesie, put a pink bow on its head, a soft black jacket, and a cute little black skirt over the onesie. They slipped on pink socks and then black shoes.

"It's just a doll," Jack snickered.

"Oh, stop you," Maddie hid her giggle. "I think it's cute."

"That baby carrier will be useful around school," Kwan commented, snatching that too.

"Should we take the stroller?"

"We should take the smaller one, just in case we go out later. I'll put it in my locker."

"Diaper bag! We can put all that stuff they gave us in this diaper bag. So diapers, bottles, formula, wipes…we should bring extra clothing just in case Bella makes a mess."

"Good, good. Ohh, what's this?" Kwan held up a square metallic object, with a small red button in the middle.

"Oh, you found it! That's the Fenton Playard. We made our own to fit the family needs," Maddie explained. "Bella can play in it. And you can bring it with you anywhere because it's so portable and compact!"

"Great! We can use this during lunch. Bella can play while we eat," Dash pocketed it. "I want to get a photo album later for our family pictures, but Danny will probably think we're going overboard so I don't want her to know until I'm done with it."

"We're already going overboard, but whatever. We'll go to the mall later and look at baby stuff, and while Danny and I are in the toy store, you can hurry off while she's distracted."

Dash nodded in satisfaction.

"We should start getting this stuff ready, so we're not rushing. It's time to wake up Danny anyway," Kwan looked over everything with a critical eye.

"Okay, I'll wake her up?"

"Yeah, I'll start loading up the stuff into the RV."

Jack rolled his eyes again, "Alright, I'll help. I'll show you how to install that car seat while we're at it."

"Thanks, Dad," Kwan grinned. "Mom, can you look over Bella for a second."

"Sure, sweetie," Maddie let out her giggle. She couldn't help it.

So while that was being done, Danny was getting ready in confusion. Then she was eating in confusion. And then she was just in plain confusion.

"We're taking the RV? What's all this stuff? And you dressed up Bella? Wait –you made breakfast for me? Okaaay...I think I need to sit down and take this all in," she sat down heavily and just stared at her boys, her parents full out laughing as they walked away and went back to work in the basement.

"Did you like your food?" Kwan beamed.

"Uh, yeah…"

"We got stuff from your parents to use. Cool, huh? Isn't our daughter looking adorable?" Dash continued.

"Uh, yeah…"

"You're well-rested, right? We tried to let you sleep in a little bit more, since you look really tired and you probably were taking care of the baby all night because us idiots sleep like logs," Kwan looked apologetically at her.

Danny sighed tiredly, but gave them a small smile.

"Thanks, you guys, for all this. And yeah, I'm mostly rested, though I'm still a little tired. I guess I'll be fine."

"We'll have to get going, so let's head to the RV," Kwan looked at the time.

"Yeah…about that…the RV?"

Dash shrugged, "Your dad let us use it. Kwan was going to make us walk since we couldn't decide on how to get there and he wouldn't let us use my truck and your bike's out of the question."

"…Let's just get to school."

Dash drove, while Danny rested in the back, closing her eyes tiredly. Kwan took Danny's iPod and hooked it up, playing Usher's _Confessions Part II_.

"Kwan…"

"It's suiting," he replied without pause, and Dash snickered.

"These are my confessions. Just when I thought I said all I can say, my chick on the side said she got one on the way. These are my confessions. Man, I'm thrown and I don't what to do. I guess I gotta give part two of my confessions. If I'm gonna tell it then I'm gonna tell it all. Damn near cried when I got that phone call; I'm so thrown, and I don't know what to do. But to give you part two of my confessions," Dash and Kwan sang in unison, actually not that bad.

"Guys, it's not really our kid…"

"Oh, Danny, just give in. You're halfway there anyway. Say it, it's your kid," Kwan prodded.

Danny laughed, "Alright, alright. Bella's my baby."

"There you go," Dash nodded smugly.

* * *

It was an odd school day. Kwan had the baby carrier around his front and had slid the baby in there, Dash was carrying the diaper bag, and Danny was in between the two at all times. Every once in a while, Kwan or Dash would snap a picture with them in various poses, Danny most of the time front and center with the baby.

And then they were in Tetslaff's class, and by then Danny had finally succumbed to her tired mind and had fallen asleep at her desk. Kwan was taking notes and Dash was taking care of the baby. They'd taken the entire corner in the back nearest to the window all to themselves.

"I see some of you are actually taking this seriously," Tetslaff snorted, glancing at the pairs with tired eyes, flour sacks dumped onto the floor or away, and then at the odd threesome in the corner.

"Baxter! Jeong! Wake Fenton up!"

Instead of listening to her, both of them shot echoed creepy glares at her, Kwan pausing in his note taking and Dash starting to burp the baby as they stared at her in agitation.

"Our boo stayed up all night to take care of Bella. She needs her sleep," Kwan growled.

"There's important notes to be taken," she said in a dry tone.

"I'm taking care of it. It's fine. I'm doing notes, Dash is taking care of the baby, and Danny is resting. Got it?"

"Shh! You'll irritate the baby," Dash's glare worsened.

Tetslaff sighed before going back to teaching.

Class over, the trio waited for Sam and Tucker to finish packing up before trailing outside for lunch.

"I brought sandwiches!" Kwan said cheerfully.

"Mm, thanks, sweetheart," Danny muttered tiredly, not really fully awake yet.

Kwan beamed.

"Danny, here. Let me take your bag," Dash said, now that Kwan had the baby and his hands were free.

"Thanks, honey."

Sam blinked, "Sooo, Kwan's 'sweetheart' and Dash is 'honey'?"

"And Danny is everything," Kwan and Dash answered at the same time.

"You guys are so funny!" Tucker laughed at them, juggling the baby in his pink baby carrier as he kept answering calls.

"What's he up to?" Kwan looked questioning at the busy boy.

Sam growled, "He's starting a baby-sitting business. Flour sack style."

"Hello, this is Tucker Foley and Baby Flour Daycare. How may I help you?"

"Sweetheart, I'm hungry. Can I have one of those sandwiches?" Danny sighed, collapsing onto her butt beneath the tree they were going to eat under.

"Sure thing, Danny," Kwan rummaged through the diaper bag and handed her one as the rest of the group followed her suit.

Dash fished for the Fenton Playard in his pocket and pushed the button, letting it expand, and then stared wide-eyed at the results. The rest of the teens in the yard stared at them and the monstrosity.

"Danny…did your parents like miniature-sized the Jungle or something?!"

"Oh, you found the Fenton Playard…" Danny yawned tiredly. Her eyes snapped open and then she stared. "You brought the Fenton Playard?!"

Dash and Kwan shrugged embarrassedly.

"Your mom said it could be brought everywhere. We thought Bella could play in it while we ate," Dash mumbled.

"Dash…"

The blond shrugged again, taking the doll and putting her at the entrance. The group started eating in silence.

"Wow, you guys are taking this more seriously than I am."

"Tucker!"

"Go back to your calls, Foley!"

After school was over and they took a quick trip to the mall, they went back home and started another tutoring session. Danny was swaying the baby as she spoke to them, pointing different things out as she held the doll in one arm. Afterwards, Danny said she was going to take a nap and Dash was going to take the stroller and walk the baby. By the time Jack and Maddie came up, it was almost quiet. Almost.

Hearing the washer on, Jack trudged into the washer/dryer room to dump his and Maddie's work clothes and stopped in his tracks as he stared.

"Hey, Dad! Got any more clothes?" Kwan asked cheerfully. "Bells is with Dash. They're probably around the park. Danny was tired so she's gone to take a nap."

"Uh, yeah…here, son," Jack flitted away after, seeking out his stash of cookies to munch on to get away from the strangeness.

It was a similar routine for the rest of the week. The boys did a lot of the chores, was around the house so much that they practically lived there (which they kind of did, after grabbing extra clothes from their house), and it was kind of very domestic for Danny.

"We should get rings –"

"No rings!"

"Sweetie, food's ready."

"Thanks, sweetheart."

"Where's my jacket?"

"Over there, by the computer."

"Damn, it got stained."

"Bella needs a change!"

"It's your turn, Baxter."

Yeah, it was a lot of that going on too.

"I thought they were just sleeping over," Sam laughed at her.

"They were supposed to just sleep over for the week," Danny rolled her eyes. "But they act like they actually lived there now. Kwan does the laundry, Dash cleans, both of them cook breakfast sometimes. Mostly I do the cooking."

"Woah, did you guys get secretly married or something? It's way too domestic for my taste."

"This is Tucker –"

They tuned Tucker out.

"So where are they now?" Sam stretched.

"Grocery shopping," Danny said sarcastically, snickering as she finished feeding the baby and began to burp it.

Sam burst out laughing and wouldn't stop.

"Oh, my sides. I'm getting stitches from laughing so much," Sam calmed down.

"You suck," Danny pouted.

"Sweetie, we're back!" Kwan called out.

"Here comes the daddies," Danny rolled her eyes again for the hundredth time that week.

"Time to go home," Dash said. "See you later Manson, Foley. It's nap time for the baby."

Sam was still laughing as they walked away.

When they were at her home, their home practically now, they were just winding down when Skulker appeared.

"Nothing seems to be agitating you into fighting, ghost child, not even the idiot Box Ghost I baited you with," Skulker growled.

"You!" Danny screeched.

At her voice her parents appeared, looking ready for action.

"This seems to be important to you. Perhaps I shall take it then!" Skulker grabbed the baby, but before he could do much, in an instant, Kwan had taken an ecto-gun and had blasted him away, Dash catching the baby after darting underneath the ghost, and then uncapping the Fenton Thermos and sucking Skulker into it in one smooth move, carrying and rocking the baby at the same time.

"Ah, look at that, Jack. Our future son-in-laws are taking to the family business," Maddie squealed.

Jack wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

Danny was quiet, but when the two boys looked over to her, she was watching them with a soft smile.

* * *

"It's my baby!" Dash screamed.

"It's a doll, Baxter!" Tetslaff screamed back.

"Don't call Bella a doll!" Kwan backed Dash up.

Danny sat in her seat, biting back a smile, but staying quiet as the two argued with the teacher.

"Its school property, boys. Give it back."

Dash and Kwan glared angrily, protectively sharing their hold on the doll.

"Alright, alright. Fenton, tell your idiots to back down. They can have the doll until after school, then you force them to give it back," Tetslaff grunted.

"Yes, ma'am," Danny nodded.

She whistled and Dash and Kwan trotted over to her side, sitting next to her.

Then Tetslaff glared at the rest of the class, who sat guiltily in their chairs, shooting Tucker angry looks every once in a while.

"The rest of you are getting F's! FAILED! Shame on you! All of your babies are part of a cookie now. Foley, you're paying everyone back. Manson, for great care, if questionable makeup, you get an A. Fenton, you and your idiots get an A+ each, for exemplary care. And since you were helping the school and Axion Animatronics by test driving the thing, that's going to be put on your permanent records. Nice job on the photo album too."

She went back to yelling and lecturing the rest of the class.

"Good job, you two…" Danny praised, grabbing the baby from them and rocking it. "…Both of you would make great fathers," she murmured, keeping her gaze on the doll.

They stared at her in disbelief, before their faces transformed into bright balls of sunshine.

Dash and Kwan wore a huge smile on their faces the entire day.

* * *

Vlad smiled softly as he flipped through the album, ignoring the boys and focusing on Danny's presence in the photos. It was a gamble having them take the baby animatronics, and hoping they'd give Danny one to test out. He would have specified her, but he didn't want to be too obvious or suspicious, considering Axion and its affiliates were all owned by him and if Danny had been suspicious, she probably would have looked it up.

But it was all worth it, especially looking at the audio, video, and photos at his disposable from the project.

He flipped back to the back, gazing softly at the picture of Danny holding the baby in her arms, a tender look on her face and a loving smile painting her lips. She would be a wonderful mother, just like her own mother.

Oh, Maddie…their family would be perfect soon…

Started 2/23/10 –Completed 2/25/10

A/n: Hm, a much a happier chapter, right? A nice break from the usual… And I decided no Red Huntress, so not much Valerie.


	14. Aureo Hamo Piscari

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set as an AU, genderbending fic.  
Spoilers: For episode S1.19 ("The Million Dollar Ghost", series continuity order) and mention of future episodes.  
Warnings: Allusions to rape, violence, cursing, sexual situations...  
Pairings: Danny/Dash, Danny/Kwan, one-sided (most of the time) Danny/Ghosts, various odd smidgens of Danny/OCs, _sort of_ Vlad/Danny, future pairings to be announced...

Chapter Fourteen:_ Aureo Hamo Piscari_ –**To Fish With a Golden Hook**

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Fourteen: Aureo Hamo Piscari_

"Seriously? Ghost drills?" Danny muttered, crumbling the memo that talked about it.

Lancer began walking around with a purple mask, trying to mimic ghost sounds so he could pretend he was one.

"That's hardly convincing," Sam snorted, watching in amusement.

"Danny, what are you doing?" Kwan asked, watching his crush close her eyes and mutter under her breath.

"Praying my parents stay at home."

Unfortunately, Jack and Maddie crashed through. In a move too quick for anyone to see, Danny darted to her parents and tackled them out of sight.

"I love you guys, but please don't embarrass me. And that's Mr. Lancer, not an actual ghost. They're doing ghost drills in school now," Danny said in a rush.

"Alright, sweetie. If you say so," Maddie reluctantly agreed.

"Are you sure, Danny? It could be a ghost pretending to be Mr. Lancer!" Jack started charging up the ecto-gun.

"Yes, Dad! Home now! You and Mom!"

She ushered them out of school before she ran to her class.

School was over and Danny was once again tutoring her boys, when the TV was turned on and put on the news, where Hariet Chin started talking about the need for more competent ghost hunters, especially now with a million dollar bounty on Phantom's head by a mysterious benefactor.

Jack started ranting about how he was more determined than ever to capture Phantom, and that no one was going to beat him to it. He stomped to the basement, Maddie following after with reassuring words.

Danny had paled, unmoving. She felt Dash and Kwan each take one of her hands and hold it, ignoring her cell phone vibrating to alert her of a message. She glanced at it to see a text message from Hariet warning her about the news and apologizing about it.

"It's best-known ghost hunters, Danny. Not the _best_," Kwan whispered reassuringly.

The doorbell rang and Danny reluctantly extracted herself from them and went to answer it. Her eyes lit up when she saw who was at the door, throwing herself into his arms in a hug.

"Vlad!"

The boys curiously, jealously so, followed and looked, their eyes growing wide when they caught sight of the older man.

"Oh, Dash, Kwan, this is Vlad Masters. He's a family and personal friend. Vlad, these were the two boys I told you about. The ones I tutor?"

"Ah, yes. Pleasant to meet you," Vlad gave them a cool smile.

Awestruck as they were, they couldn't get rid of the feeling that Vlad didn't like them.

"Um…we're practically done now, so Dash and I will just leave so you two can get together. We'll see you later, Danny," Kwan said, dragging Dash with him.

"I should tell Mom and Dad you're here," Danny excitedly said.

"Why don't I come with you?" Vlad said smoothly, giving her an easy smile.

They went down to the basement and both Maddie and Jack were surprised and pleased to see him, though Vlad was subtly just a bit icy with Jack. Maddie pulled Vlad to the side, as Jack started telling Danny about the new invention he was working on to help capture Phantom.

"I really have to thank you, Vlad. If you did kiss her, or whatever you did, it really helped her relax and not be afraid of men. She's almost back to normal. In fact, maybe even better since she acts so loosened up around men now."

Vlad gave an awkward smile, "Yes, I, uh, kissed her. But it was a little odd, what with myself seeing Danny more as a niece or _daughter_."

Maddie _had_ to see that. And that Vlad didn't want her to know how much he'd enjoyed the kiss. Because he didn't. At all.

"I understand completely, so I'm so thankful that you brought yourself to do it anyway," Maddie smiled.

"Um, Jack doesn't know, does he?"

"Oh, no. Not at all. If he did, you would be dead."

"I was afraid of that," Vlad muttered.

"Anyways, I'm very sorry about your home, Vlad. You can stay here for as long as you like. You'll have to stay in Danny's room, I'm afraid. Jazz's room is too small. Danny, is that all right if you just sleep in the Fenton Emergency Ops Tower? The guest room there is probably messy, but you can fix it up."

"Sure, Mom," Danny called out.

"Your Dad and I will be working a little longer here, so can you show Vlad to his room?"

Danny nodded and casually took his hand, leading him back up and then up the stairs to her room.

"So you'll be staying here for awhile, and you get to have the biggest bed here –aside from my parents'. The other three of the family likes spoiling me, so I get this huge room and bed all to myself. Enjoy while you can! Because I'll be taking it back soon," Danny grinned at him.

Vlad plopped onto the bed, hooking an arm around her waist and brought her down with him.

"But it's mine for now," he huffed.

"For now," she swore.

He took a piece of her hair, twirling it around. Damn it, he kept doing odd things around her. It was not helping his case.

"About, um, the last time…"

Vlad winced.

"You like my mom, don't you? I see how you look at her sometimes and the way you act around my dad," Danny surprisingly said. "So, you like kissed me because you couldn't kiss her?"

But it gave him a very thankful out. Especially since he had to keep his mouth shut about Maddie's involvement, never mind that he didn't want to give away how much he himself actually enjoyed it.

"Ah, Danny. I didn't want you to find out about that. I thought it would be awkward to know I had feelings for your mother."

She rolled her eyes, "Awkward? And kissing me wouldn't be awkward?"

"Ah yes. That would pose problems as well."

She shook her head, still smiling. "You know you'll never get to be with her, right? She loves Dad way too much."

"Oh butter biscuits."

They shared a laugh before calming down, Vlad keeping an arm around her as she huddled closer, smiling as she buried her face into his side.

"…So it doesn't bother you? Any of it? My kissing you?"

"…I don't know. I guess not. I mean, I know Mom would never leave Dad, sorry about that by the way, so I'm fine with you having feelings with her because nothing's going to happen anyway. And you kissing me…well, I don't know. For some reason, after you did…I just felt _light_. I felt better than I had in weeks, like I didn't have to be so conservative or afraid."

"I think that's a good thing, Petrushka," he murmured.

She yawned, "I think I get that. That weird 'little badger' name is when you're being affectionate and light-hearted, but Petrushka is when you're strangely intimate. Like you want a confession or want me to talk to you…or just close and personal moments like this…"

"Sleep. You're tired…"

Danny actually really was, so she had no trouble falling asleep straight away.

The next morning, Vlad slipped away from Danny and trailed off to the kitchen, surprised to see the two boys from yesterday in it and cooking some light breakfast.

"Oh…good morning," Kwan greeted him hesitantly.

"Good morning," Dash greeted as well.

He raised his eyebrows at them, but nodded.

"Eggs, toast, and bacon. How quaint," Vlad's lip curled.

The two frowned.

"We're cooking breakfast for Danny," Dash said hotly, glaring at the older man.

Vlad ignored them, fetching a mixing bowl, a beater, and ingredients to start making pancakes.

"What's your problem?" Kwan joined Dash in glaring at him.

"My problem? I have no idea what you mean," Vlad said airily, easily dismissing them.

"Apparently you have a problem with us, if your attitude says anything."

"Neither of you two are worthy of Danny," Vlad said bluntly, looking at them in disdain. "She's worth much more than the two of you put together. If she _had_ to have a pair of Neanderthals, I would rather she pick Roger Harrington and Guyton Richards. At least they're successful and intelligent."

"Like she would care what you had to say," Dash seethed.

"Of course she would!" Vlad exclaimed in mock surprise. "Who else helped her out of the dark hole the two of you no doubt put her in? Just a kiss from Prince Moi and she's back to her old self," he finished smugly.

"Why you!"

Vlad poured some of the batter into the frying pan and set it to simmer as he turned around and leaned against the counter, looking at them coolly.

"You silly boys. You aren't worth Danny's time. She deserves much better and you need to realize that. The quicker you do, the less heartache you poor fools will suffer."

Then he turned around and focused on the food he was making, ignoring the other two in the kitchen.

When Danny awoke and got ready, eating a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs and toast, she wondered at the quiet attitudes of her two jock friends and the coolness of her older one.

After school, they headed to the Nasty Burger with Sam and Tucker, all of them frowning at the 'Welcome Ghost Hunters!' sign on the front, even more so at the gathered ghost hunters around the place.

"They _had_ to choose the Nasty Burger as their headquarters?" Danny sneered.

"The Groovy Gang and Scaredy Cat, the Extreme Ghostbreakers, and the Guys in White. Mmhm, good thing no real ghosts are about. We'll be doomed," Dash echoed Danny's sneer.

"It's the who-can't-catch-ghosts convention," Sam snickered.

"Which means he's going to be here any second now," Danny groaned.

Sure enough, Jack crashed into the Extreme Ghostbreakers' bikes, Maddie and a stoic Vlad by his side in the RV.

"I was thinking of starting a ghost tour, since Amity is on the mark as the ghoul-y town around," Tucker grinned, whipping out a ghost costume outfit and putting it on, the words 'Boo-Yeah Amity Ghoul Tours' on the front.

Unfortunately, dressing up as a ghost in an area full of ghost hunters wasn't a good idea, as Sam told Tucker so.

Jack shot an ecto-gun at Tucker, covering him in ecto-goo.

"I caught him! Me! Jack Fenton! Danny Fenton's father!"

Tucker took off the shirt and shivered. "I'm not going to grow a third arm or something, am I?"

The three of the other ghost hunters that ran there started laughing and Danny's blood boiled.

She darted over to them, jumping into the air and doing a roundhouse kick that hit the dark-skinned Guy in White in the jaw and knocked him flat on the ground, landing on her hand and doing a back spring to the male Ghostbreaker, snapping her leg up to land another kick to his chest. She glared at the female Groovy Gang member, who quivered before running to her cohort.

"Idiots, the bunch of you," she sneered. "You all ran after my dad and only after Tucker showed himself did you turn around and made a fool out of Jack Fenton. _Pathetic_."

Danny leaned down and grabbed the male Ghostbreaker, roughly tossing him over to his partner.

"None of you take your jobs seriously. All any of you are, are a bunch of wannabes. Just because you have the tech, doesn't mean you're real ghost hunters. My parents live and _breathe_ ghost hunting. You'll never be half the ghost hunters they are, and you'll never understand the business like they do. All you are –are _tools and puppets_, never the weapon and the puppet masters."

She sniffed contemptuously and sneered at them again.

"Pathetic."

She turned away and started walking over to her friends when three familiar ghost vultures squawked and appeared. In a smooth move, she ran up the side of the Nasty Burger building and whipped off her bag and fetched the Fenton Bazooka she had managed to fit into it. In mid air, she flawlessly shot at them and they all were sucked into the portable ghost portals.

Danny landed on her feet, bazooka smoking as it rested against her shoulder. She twirled it once before shoving it back into her bag and then walked calmly over to her friends, starting to walk into the restaurant, everyone inside staring through the windows. She didn't see her gaping father, her giddy mom, or the strangely proud Vlad, who had a mischievous smile on his face.

"Oh, by the way? I learned all that from my parents," she tossed over her shoulder.

A white lie, but she loved her parents and _no one_ talked about them but she and Jazz.

* * *

"She caused quite the ruckus, didn't she, Agent K?" the blond man leaned back in his chair.

"I'm sorry, sir," the dark-skinned man murmured, his cheeks red. His lighter-skinned companion was standing ramrod still next to him.

"Agent O."

The lighter-skinned man tensed.

"And you didn't assist your partner?"

"No, sir. I –"

"It wouldn't have mattered. She still would have overpowered you at the same time. Neither of you are well versed in martial arts, and only have basic combat training. Everything you've mastered is to do with the weapons provided to this division."

"Yes, sir," both of them muttered.

"…But I'm interested in this matter now. I think I'll personally travel there and help handle the matter myself," their superior surprised them.

"But, sir!"

"Prepare for my arrival. I will be arriving in 24 hours."

The cams were shut off and Agent K and O breathed a sigh of relief.

On the other side of the cam, Special Agent W calmly brushed his hands down his front and stood up from his seat, calling on his phone for his personal jet to be readied.

This wasn't his ideal job, but it was something. Outside of this special covert section of the government, he was addressed as Major Ames H. Wolfwood of the U.S. Air Force. After attaining the rank at a young age, he was honorably discharged from the AF and drafted into running the youngling division. When ghosts first plagued Amity Park in its first year, the city hadn't quite been brought to attention. But the government had caught notice and decided a preliminary division could be formed just in case. Once the city began either being overwhelmed or caught in ghost crises, people began taking notice outside of the city –which gave the government more incentive to focus a little more on the fledging division. And then business started booming when the ghost invasion happened, and Phantom became Public Enemy Number One in Amity and unknowingly, Division XO13 of the government.

He settled into his seat and waited to arrive at Amity.

Around the same time, Dash Baxter was quietly folding his clothes and putting them away, disturbing his family with his attitude. His mom knocked on the door and looked in worriedly, her son not reacting to her. Her husband slipped in beside her and the two walked in more.

"Dashiel Logan Baxter, if you don't tell us what's wrong you're going to be grounded for a long, long time," Topher Baxter started out, stepping away from his wife to enter the room more. "Is this about a girl, Dash?"

Their son didn't answer, but they saw him slightly stiffen.

"Oh, Dash. There are always other girls out there. Paulina isn't everything," Topher pushed a little.

Sierra, his wife, sniffed. "Dash, you shouldn't be so infatuated with that girl. She's bad news –"

"It's not Paulina."

That stopped his parents short and they stared at him.

Dash held up his camera, not looking over to them.

"I have to get copies. The ones I used for the project was in a photo album and Tetslaff's sidestepping all my attempts to get it back," Dash replied quietly.

His mother determinedly stepped forward and quickly grabbed it, prompting Dash to look up quickly and stare at them in horror.

"You can't look at that!"

But they'd already powered it up and were flipping through the photos, eyes widening at the amount and focus of the pictures.

Dash groaned and pulled at his hair.

"I don't like Paulina. I don't think I ever _really_ did. I just thought she was pretty and popular, and since we were both the most popular kids in school, we would be expected to be a couple. But I like _her_, and at first I thought she was a guy and I used to bully her so much and now she tutors me and I'm fighting with Kwan over her and –"

"Maybe you should start from the beginning, son," Topher cut off his son gently.

Dash breathed in deeply and began, first with how he'd thought Danny was a boy and how he'd bullied her through freshman year. Then he started on how sophomore year began, with Danny fighting back for the first time to when he found out she was female and tutoring Kwan and was now tutoring him, and he'd realized how much he actually _liked _her, even before he realized she was female.

How jealous he was of Kwan because he got to be around her more after he wasn't popular and began hanging out with her group, how he remembered how intensely jealous and upset he was when he was under Ember's spell and had seen her embrace his ex-best friend, his new-found rivalry with Kwan and his jealousy of everyone who got to be around her, and how upset he was that he couldn't because he had to be with the popular crowd.

How he actually missed Kwan, despite being constantly jealous of him, how he'd been possessed by a ghost during the invasion and had almost forced himself on Danny and he'd found out Danny was Phantom, how Danny had withdrawn from that and how guilty he felt, how he and the others tried to drag Danny into the haunted house extra credit and how that was made worse when Danny was taken to face her worse fears instead, how he'd found out that she was raped and not just harassed by jocks like he'd previously thought, how Danny had completely isolated herself after that until her mother took her somewhere for the week and then she came back reenergized and flirty and hot.

And finally how much he liked pretending to be a dad, especially since it was supposed to be his and Danny's kid (and Kwan's, but he tried to think more on how it was _his_) and how much he liked pretending he was married to her. Then he told them of Vlad Masters recently visiting the Fenton's because he was actually a family friend, and how the older man had told him and Kwan off and said neither of them were worthy of being with Danny and that they should give up before they suffered more heartache, after insinuating that he was the reason Danny was pulled out of the dark depression she had been in.

His mom cleared her throat and looked at her son wide-eyed.

"Well, your life has certainly become much more lively after meeting her."

Dash shrugged tiredly.

"You won't tell anyone about her being Phantom, right? And I don't think she wants anyone to know about her and that asshole jock."

"Language, Dash. And yes, you can count on your mom and dad," Sierra smiled widely at him. "And I like her. She sounds like a very nice young lady –much better than that Paulina you tried to introduce to us."

"Yeah, she's one of a kind," Dash said dejectedly.

Topher narrowed his eyes, "Look here, son. Vlad Masters may be a rich bastard –"

"Christopher!" Sierra berated.

"But he doesn't order that young girl around and he certainly doesn't order you around. He has no business saying the kind of crap he did. And popularity isn't everything, Dash. You got to choose what's more important –your reputation to a bunch of nobodies or being with a girl who makes you happy. Mind you, when I was your age I wanted to suck up to all my crushes because that's how I got the girls –" his arm was slapped loudly by Sierra "Ow! Ah, well, you get that point. As for Kwan, things like this happen. Either your friendship is strong enough to survive this or it isn't. And you have to know whether or not the girl is worth gambling a friendship for –you've been friends with Kwan for a very long time, son."

Topher was going to continue when Sierra's face paled, tugging at her husband's sleeve.

"This wouldn't be _that_ Danny, would it?" Topher echoed her paled face when he realized what she meant.

Dash glared, "You have something against her?"

"No, Dash…just your older brother brought your crush to us once a long time ago, as a friend. She was very sweet. We were sorry what happened to her, and believe us, your older brother got a huge yelling when we found out what happened. All the football players' parents had a secret memo, being that the Fenton's didn't want anyone to know about what happened but the school felt a responsibility to have us know and to handle our kids."

"Ash knew Danny?" Dash asked uncertainly, having always looked up to his older brother.

Topher sighed, "You were at Kwan's house for a sleepover when he brought her over for dinner…It was just a week later when everything happened. She never got a chance to come back here, and you never got to meet her then."

"Bring her here for dinner once, will you? It would be nice to see her again…and as you like her, it'll be even better," his mother smiled at him.

"I want to talk to Ash…I want to visit him," Dash gritted his teeth, looking away and willing his tears to disappear.

"You…you can't, son…" his father said hesitantly.

"That jerk goes to college with him, doesn't he?" he glared at them.

Sierra sighed, "He wasn't convicted…he never had charges against him…he got away scot-free, Dash. What did you expect?"

"I want to go," Dash stubbornly said.

"When your next break is here, sweetie. Okay?" his mother conceded reluctantly.

"Okay…"

But Dash wasn't sure he could wait that long, but he knew for sure he didn't want to explode at his brother through the phone or email. This had to be personal.

* * *

Her movements were fluid and graceful. Her lines seemingly perfect and her kicks were especially superb. Just as he'd remembered watching from the video feed he'd seen of her…

Ames wasn't quite sure how to introduce himself, but at least he'd already thought of how he would present himself to the rest of the town. To everyone, and probably to her as well, he would stick to Special Agent W since no one was supposed to know who he was.

But letting her know his first name wouldn't be bad, would it?

The girl he had been admiring suddenly faltered and she stopped short, breathing heavily and stumbling towards the bench where her stuff was. He watched in confusion from where he leaned against the wall in the shadows, watching her perform the basic katas in Jujutsu. She never made it to the bench.

She collapsed on the ground, her whole body shaking intensely. She started whimpering, curling up as her shaking grew worse. He rushed over to her in alarm, never mind being a stranger and showing he had been intruding.

"What's going on?" he asked her.

She gasped and shook her head, eyes wide and dazed. She shakily pointed to her bag and he hurried over to it, rummaging for whatever.

"What am I looking for?"

"T-tryptophan," she forced out, no longer able to speak clearly.

He found a bottle of tryptophan and a bottle of water and he rushed back to her, grabbing two pills and uncapping the water bottle while he was at it. He helped her take it and leaned her up against him, tilting her head back and helping her to hold and drink the bottled water. She took another handful of the things before she finally stopped shaking and slumped against him in exhaustion.

"So…this may be a little forward, but my name's Ames," he gave a small grin down at her.

She smiled tiredly up at him, "Danny. This must be one hell of a meeting, huh?"

"I had crazier," he slowly picked her up.

She blinked, "Where are you taking me?"

"Since you needed typtophan for the seizures, I'm thinking you're supposed to take that nutrient to help. Tryptophan is in dairy…so, ice cream?"

"Mm, sounds good. _This_ may be a little forward, but I'm going to pass out now."

She didn't give him a chance to reply.

Chancing looking like a kidnapper, he put her in his car, sitting her upright and buckling her in and began driving to the local hangout where he was sure his subordinates were still milling around, along with the other 'pathetic tools and puppets.'

At the Nasty Burger, strange name that was, he gently shook her shoulder where she started waking up in confusion.

"If you remember the past few minutes, you might remember me. But I should reintroduce myself more properly. I'm the head of the organization of the 'Guys in White'," he rolled his eyes at the name, "Special Agent W, but you can just call me by my first name –Ames. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Fenton. I've heard, seen really, quite interesting things about you."

She stiffened up and glared at him, a look of suspicion already crossing her face.

"We could talk more in there, if you'd like," he asked gently, pointing to the restaurant. "You might feel more comfortable and sure I won't try anything if we were in a more open and public place. I would just like to talk. A bit of business, but more for pleasure."

He got out of his car and walked around to her side, opening the door for her and holding out a hand to help her out.

She frowned at him, measuring him up before reluctantly unbuckling her seatbelt and cautiously grabbing his hand, letting him lead her in. They were seated at a boot near the back; a bit more private than she would have liked but understood that a measure of privacy was needed.

"Now, let's get the business out of the way so I can just enjoy your company," he started out softly, observing her with a cool gaze and making her feel like squirming. "Let me tell you a little about the 'Guys in White', or as I prefer Division XO13."

He started in on the brief history of the organization, ending with how he'd seen her defeat his man and the others through a video and audio feed attached to their sunglasses and the report they gave him.

"So you see, I've decided to handle the matter myself," he explained, plopping his elbow onto the table and setting his chin on his hand.

She sneered mockingly, "Come to make sure your goons do their jobs right and get the Million Dollar Ghost? Or have you come to do the job yourself?"

He laughed lightly, "Not at all. I will keep that job to them, because at the moment I could care less about Phantom. I have much more intriguing prey to hunt right now."

The way he eyed her coolly gave her the answer as to who that may be, shockingly enough.

"I haven't done anything, other than beat one of your idiots to the ground and if you think that's going to intimidate me into putting myself in trouble with you lot –"

He quickly placed a finger on her lips, leaning forward and raising an eyebrow.

"Au contraire, as to the business end of the deal, I was going to say that you were quite right about Agent K and O. Neither of them are very skilled in combat, but have focused more on their weapons –as the division has put more emphasis on because of the subject. My fault really. I should stress on the physical combat, but I didn't see the need because what ghost would fight a human? I'm sure I'm wrong and that it's not just ghosts anyway they'd need to fight. So I'd like to propose you teaching them a form of combat, and in return I'll personally teach you Jujutsu and practice Muay Thai with you."

She frowned at him.

"I read your file," he answered her silent question. Seeing her face darken, he continued. "Just your statistics. I skipped over your hobbies, anything personal. I would like to learn that personally, and from you."

Her frown lessened, but her guard was still up.

"And why would I care about your conditions? My mother can teach me Jujutsu, and sooner or later someone practiced in Muay Thai will show up and I can fight them."

"Your mother will always spend time working, whilst I will be available at your need to dedicate to your training," he answered flawlessly, without blinking. "And you're just going to hope someone is just going to pop up, who can fight with Muay Thai?" he raised another eyebrow at her again.

She huffed and glowered at him.

"Never mind how I didn't think that was like you, but that scenario just matched this. I _did_ just pop up and conveniently know Muay Thai."

She looked hesitant, so he pushed.

"I'll let you help look over the division and basically help me run it from an outsider's/part-time Gal in White role," he added confidently.

Her eyes widened, "W-why would I care about that? My loyalty's to my parents and if I was part of any ghost hunting organization, it would be theirs. Family and all…"

"I never said you couldn't be part of the family business," he shrugged. "I only offered you a place with me. You could be privy to information only the government has, without being obliged to share your family secrets, and share what you know with the family. You learn things on a need-to-know basis, and in the end we could help each other. We both have a common goal, right?"

"What's in it for you?" she asked tiredly, looking close to giving up.

"An experienced ghost hunter, who would know more on how to run things in this business. Someone I just know knows who's who of the ghosts, and what they're capable of. Even better, someone who has a passion for this kind of thing. Agent K and O do have a passion for this. They're just a little," he winced, "unknowledgeable…and in ways, their passion is a bit misplaced."

"And you? Do you feel any passion for this?" she asked softly, scrutinizing him.

"That's a personal question," he murmured. "One I can't answer. Not just yet. For personal reasons, really."

"Say I do agree to this. Why me? Why not just go straight to my parents?" she demanded, desperate for something to help her say no.

"Your parents are already affiliated to their business. You can attach yourself to them, as family, but also choose to be part of us or any other ghost-hunting group at your own leisure. And to be honest, the two come as a packaged pair," he shrugged apologetically at her. "Despite what you claim, I know most of what you learn was from your own doing. And also, I know you love your father and all, but I don't think you're being all that truthful about him to the rest of us. As far as I'm concerned, I do acknowledge Jack Fenton can be a force to reckon with, but I have the feeling that that's more reliable in regards to his family being in trouble…"

She smirked unapologetically.

"Do we have a deal?" he smirked back.

"Oh, I suppose," she muttered reluctantly.

"Good, now to pleasure," he called over a waitress, ordered two sundaes, and then focused back on her. "So, to begin –hello, my name is Ames and I find you utterly fascinating and attractive. Please to meet you and hope to see more of you in the future, and that we get along."

She gaped at him and it was his turn to stare at her unapologetically, a light smile grazing his lips.

"M-my name is Danny…and I find _you_ utterly frustrating and bewildering. I am unsure whether I should be pleased to meet you or stay confused, but look forward from learning from you anyway. I hope we get along as well…um, thank you for helping me earlier and for the ice cream…"

He just smiled at her.

"What's your favorite song?" he asked suddenly.

She stared at him, but when it seemed like he was serious, she just inwardly shrugged.

"I guess _The Man Who Sold the World_ by Nirvana. Yours?" she added after a moment of hesitation.

"_Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band_ by the Beatles," he answered promptly. "Favorite color?"

And they began trading off answers and questions, she finding herself oddly enjoying the time. Strange though…it felt like a date…

When he dropped her off, she tentatively stopped him.

"Um, how will I contact you?"

He blinked, "Huh, I actually forgot about that. I was so busy enjoying your presence that I hadn't thought about communication. Here, this is my business card."

He handed her a black card that was plain, except for his agent name, the organization under it, and then the phone number under that in white in the middle.

"Call that number and I'll have your phone. I'll call back with my personal cell so that you'll have my number."

"So you'll be flying back to headquarters now, or something?" she asked, glancing at the card and holding onto it tightly.

"Actually, no. I'll be moving and living here for now on. It would make sense to my superiors anyway. Amity is the capital of ghosts, and the organization would be primed and gathering knowledge and experience here. It would definitely be seen as beneficial to be staying in Amity. The government's already been handling it. And if there is a problem elsewhere, I'll just send K and O to handle it."

Living here…why did that give her goosebumps…

"I see…" she murmured.

He nodded and then surprised her by leaning forward slowly, kissing her cheek and lingering for a few seconds before backing off and smiling enigmatically at her. He returned to his car and waved before driving back.

That was one of the strangest meetings she'd ever had.

But it was also one she found she was actually really happy about. Especially considering, after school the next day, she had no tutoring to do as both Kwan and Dash had an extra practice that day that was expected to run long to prepare them for the coming game the next night, she found Ames waiting outside her school in full uniform, sunglasses and all.

But he looked way more cooler, especially leaning casually the way he was against his car.

She took the time to note the way he looked, looking at his blond hair that was so light it could've passed for white or silver, and the way it was combed neatly. His skin was almost, if not just as, pale as hers and she remembered the icy blue eyes that hid behind the glasses. Glasses, which were different from the ones Agents K and O used, styled almost like motorcycle glasses.

"Should I ask what are you doing here?" she stopped in front of him.

"I was wondering if you would like to go out somewhere," he asked bluntly, not at all messing around or stumbling with his words.

She blinked at him, "Like…where?"

"Have you eaten? I can take you to lunch or an early dinner. Unless you have something else in mind?"

She racked her head for something before just shrugging and questioning him instead.

"Why are you asking me out? Are you going to interrogate me some more?"

He smirked, "Sorry, I should rephrase my earlier statement. Can I take you out for a _date_?"

Danny stood still, tensing and her face growing blank, though there was a reluctant blush spreading lightly across her cheeks. Though he grew alarmed, he didn't show it.

"A public place. I don't want to be alone with you," she murmured, closing her eyes.

"Sure, Danny. Whatever you want. You can direct us wherever you want to go today," he replied gently, tentatively reaching out to grasp her arm.

He felt her tense even more before he felt her forcibly make herself relax under his touch.

"If I make you uncomfortable in any way, don't hesitate to tell me, okay?" he reassured her soothingly.

And that was how she had her first date with Ames, and her first date in a long time.

"Amity is a city, but we like to split it into two halves. There's the suburbia, with Casper High and all the houses and local hangouts. And then there's the inner part we call the actual city, where there's a whole bunch of stuff going on like regular cities," she informed him, more calm in his car as he drove further into Amity's inner heart. She reluctantly left her bike at the school parking lot.

"Bella Italia is in the middle, at the border between the two, so the rest of us and the higher class can meet in the middle there," she continued.

"Have you been in the inner city?" he glanced at her.

"Not for a while," she shrugged nonchalantly, but he had a feeling there was more to it.

"Then we'll stay there for awhile to make up," he said determinedly.

"Not too late, I hope," her lips twitched upward. "I still have school tomorrow and a game I promised to go to."

"Going with someone to the game?" he asked, keeping his tone light.

"No, not really. Sam hates football, Tucker's the mascot so he'll be on the field. I'm going for two friends of mine, Dash Baxter and Kwan Jeong, they're on the JV team and made me promise to attend this one as a good luck charm."

"I'll be your date then," he smirked at her, confident.

She laughed, but didn't refuse his abrasive offer.

"Then you're buying the tickets and the hotdogs," she huffed at him.

"Alright. And I'll buy us popcorn and drinks too."

She found it really easy to get along with him.

He took her to a museum that she found she actually enjoyed, before taking her to a restaurant to eat dinner at. Time sadly passed her by, and he was taking her back to her bike, the sun starting to set.

"Thanks, I had a good time today," she murmured shyly.

"Good. And I'll be looking forward to our date tomorrow," he took her hand and bent over it, softly pressing a kiss to her wrist before planting another soft one to her neck and then finally grazing her lips gently.

Like the one she'd shared with Vlad, it wasn't forceful, she had enough power to push away, and the time to do so.

He pulled away and smiled at her.

"Until tomorrow then."

He sped away in his car, leaving Danny to gaze in surprise at him by her bike.

A throat cleared and she whirled around to face whoever it was, seeing Julian with Dash and Kwan.

"Oh…hey," she said dazedly.

"Hey," Julian greeted back stoically, while Dash and Kwan were outright scowling. "So who was that?"

She shook her head to clear it, "Uh, that was A –um…Special Agent W…from the Guys in White. The leader. Um…yeah…"

"Was he trying to intimidate you or something?" Dash growled.

"Huh? Uh, no. No, he actually took me out to the city as a date," she answered unthinkingly. "He's going to take me to the game tomorrow too."

Shaking herself out of it completely, she blinked as she stared at the three guys who were mimicking statues. Shrugging, she climbed onto her bike.

"I'll see you three tomorrow! Good luck!"

She drove away, not knowing the upset she caused.

When she got home, she started to hum as she trotted up the stairs and headed to the Fenton Emergency Ops Tower. She paused by her door and shrugged, knocking lightly on it.

"Come in," Vlad's voice said from behind the door.

"Hey!" she greeted cheerfully as she skipped in.

"You look happy," he noted with a grin.

"Yeah, I guess I am," she agreed after a second.

"Can I know why?" both of his eyebrows were raised in question.

Danny laughed, feeling herself involuntarily blush.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just went out…with a _friend_," she added. "We went to the city and hung out there."

"A friend, huh?" Vlad asked dryly. "Then why are you so happy and blushing, my dear?"

She huffed and pouted.

"No reason."

She plopped herself next to him on her bed, leaning against his side.

"Really."

Rolling her eyes, she conceded a little.

"I don't know. I like him. He's sweet, kind, confident, and a whole lot of other things. And he's handsome. And I just feel the tiniest bit drawn to him."

The odd confession, so different from the shy and reserved Danny, put him off.

He couldn't help the frown she didn't see.

* * *

At the game, they saw Danny was seated near the front, the blond asshole from the day before sitting comfortably next to her.

They won the game with a landslide, Dash's legs and arms burning from the force he pushed onto them so that he could stop seeing red, and Kwan visibly exhausted from the tackles he did one after the other, seeing Danny's _friend_ in the place of the players.

They fumed in the coming days, especially with Danny having date after date with the guy.

Vlad, however, knew he had to go now. Time was wasting and he had to do what he'd come to do. He couldn't exactly steal the portal, what with Danny having put away his minions. That was worth it, though, seeing the work of his protégé. And he couldn't exactly get to them or the others without a portal, which was near impossible with Jack and Maddie working on something in there nearly all the time.

He would have to reveal himself and get their attention, diverting them away from the lab.

Really, he shouldn't have expected it to come easy.

Everything was sort of a blur. He went out as Plasmius, who Danny transformed and confronted, finding out he was responsible for the million dollar bounty, though that bounty was a bit of a red herring, considering he had faith in Danny's abilities and had only wanted to test her against other ghost hunters in the field. They fought and her government friend got in the way and started (surprisingly very good at that) shooting at them while the other ghost hunters bumbled along. Jack and Maddie got into the fray, but their expertise had to be grounded in cleaning up after the other ghost hunters.

Seeing those two occupied, he flew invisibly back to the basement of their home, not at all expecting to see Danny cleaning up her government friend, first aid kit laid out on a table as he sat down shirtless in a stool and she disinfecting and then professionally stitching up the wound on his arm.

"Nice shooting there," she remarked casually, and he refrained from laughing and revealing his position, knowing Danny was ironically admiring and yet cursing the man's shooting abilities.

"Not as good as the shooting you did, I remember from the video of you," he shot back with a lazy grin.

Vlad rolled his eyes.

"Danny, I don't really think I've been hiding this, but I'm really attracted to you," the man stated outright. "In fact, I've been interested in you from the moment I saw you in the video, even before I ever met you. I like your attitude, I just like you. I find everything about you gorgeous, and not just your looks."

Vlad inwardly huffed, just waiting for the rejection and the harsh words.

But he didn't hear them, peering around the table he was hiding in his human form, his jaw dropped as he saw the idiot grasp his protégé's face and kiss her firmly.

He waited for a slap, angry words. Anything.

_Nothing_.

And then he was watching her reciprocate, pushing forward and wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing themselves against the side of the table and slightly jarring it. Danny had climbed onto the government agent's lap, and then their hands were caressing everywhere.

Horrified, he kept watching until they pulled back for breath, both of them breathing heavily.

"I can safely say the small kisses have actually progressed into full make outs," Danny dazedly muttered.

"Does that mean I can officially call you my girlfriend?"

"Yeah…yeah, I guess you can," and the shock in her voice was clear.

Vlad glowered at his spot, crossing his arms across his chest angrily as he heard them leave. He stomped over to the portal and transformed, flying through it and the skeleton key floating right into his hands.

He didn't feel all that triumphant.

Started 2/25/10 –Completed 3/1/10


	15. Dramatis Personae

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set as an AU, genderbending fic.  
Spoilers: For episode S1.20 ("Control Freaks", series continuity order) and mention of future episodes.  
Warnings: Allusions to rape, violence, cursing, sexual situations...  
Pairings: Danny/Dash, Danny/Kwan, one-sided (most of the time) Danny/Ghosts, various odd smidgens of Danny/OCs, _sort of_ Vlad/Danny, future pairings to be announced...

Chapter Fifteen: _Dramatis Personae_ –**Characters of a Play**

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Fifteen: Dramatis Personae_

"Girlfriend? Girlfriend?! Of all the girls he could've chosen, he picked _our_ Danny?" Dash screeched, the news having just reached him.

Danny had told Sam, who told Tucker, who told Kwan, and who had finally told Dash.

"Like –how old is he?! Can't he date someone his own age?!"

"He's 31, blond, blue-eyed, 6'1", occasionally reads comics and mystery novels, is a Whedon fan, likes to draw, will admit to being a sci-fi geek if pressed, jogs every morning at 6 am, and owns a GT," Kwan listed off as he shuffled papers into a folder.

Dash stared at him, "How do you know all that?"

Kwan shrugged, "Most of it I'd gleaned from Danny, but I found out he jogs then accidentally by waking up early and seeing him jogging passed my house through my window. I'm compiling a folder on him –know your enemy and all, and he's the enemy, right?"

Dash nodded knowingly, "Alright, so that's the folder?"

Kwan shook his head, "One of them. I've got one on Vlad Masters too."

Blinking, the blond jock walked over and looked over to see numerous thin folders stacked on the floor near Kwan and the one the Asian football player was holding was neatly labeled as 'Vlad Master's' at the tab.

"Masters?"

Kwan scoffed, "It's obvious he's up to something and that he's sweet on Danny in some way. Roger and Guy are in there too, as well as Special Agent W like I said. I _still_ can't get his name off of Danny; she's keeping her lips sealed." Kwan hesitated. "And…I have Coach in here too."

"Coach?" Dash asked incredulously.

"It's a little obvious how close he is to Danny," Kwan stated dryly. "They have a close bond, especially since they've bonded since that Madden incident a long time ago. And since Coach has been with her through it all, that makes him especially close and special to her. They _always_ have lunch together at school on Fridays, and that doesn't change for anything. He was the one to convince her to wear girlish clothing occasionally in the first place. After Halloween, he was the only one Danny would talk to and it's obvious from then that Coach is the one she talks to and goes to confess to. Danny let slip that she danced with him at the dance earlier this year, after the whole Aragon thing –I have a folder on him too –and when something's wrong with Danny, everyone automatically goes to Coach, like Lancer did at Halloween.

"And remember at the same time, he was adamant he would never leave her helpless and would always help her, and how angry he was when it was implied he would because he was an adult? And how quickly he came up a good plan to save her? And remember what she told us about the incident with Paulina, and how Johnny was involved? Why would her adoptive ghost brother choose _Coach_ to possess and use to try to come on to her?"

Dash grunted, "You know she wouldn't tell us everything about that…so that means, even if it wasn't Coach himself…he still made out with her."

"He decided to use Coach instead of the two of us," Kwan added quietly. "And when we caught Special Agent W kissing her like that in the parking lot…did you catch Coach's face? He wasn't happy seeing that from the way he was acting…and then he stormed away from us when she left…I mean, come on, Dash. The two call each other by their first names, even though he's a teacher and she's a student. In fact, she shortened his name."

Dash looked away and clenched his teeth, "You're right. It is obvious something is there under the surface, at least for him. And that something could become more if Special Agent W wasn't in the way."

"Actually, that could actually push Coach more," Kwan started. "I mean, he gets more jealous and then realizes he likes Danny."

"Or maybe he knows he does and just isn't owning up to it," Dash glowered.

"Yeah, he could be hiding it and lying to everyone…to her. I mean, come on! It's so obvious he likes her and that he's attracted to her," Kwan threw his hands in the air in frustration.

Dash hesitated, but then plunged on. "I heard, after the day Johnny possessed Coach, I overheard Coach talking to Danny. He was thanking her…for letting him crash on her bed the night before and for 'keeping him warm.'"

They both grimaced at whatever that implied.

"We're not going overboard, are we?" Dash hesitantly asked.

Kwan shook his head, "We're just being organized. It's hard to keep up with who we're up against, especially when there's a lot of them. And…well, it's easier to keep track of comparisons. What are _we_ up against? Take a look at one thing each of them have in common."

Dash thought about it, glancing through the folders.

"They're all older," he stated stoically.

"And we can't change that," Kwan nodded.

"We could always age older," Dash shrugged.

"With what? A time machine?"

"Eh, I was just grasping at straws…"

Both boys sighed.

As those two were getting ready for school while moping, Sam was glaring at her parents. First, they wake her up with the sun, and then they tried to force her into this horrible dress.

That stupid news reporter came on and described her attitude perfectly; her parents glaring back at her.

Danny walked casually through the door, dressed in her usual boy clothing and raising an eyebrow at the scene.

"I got that CD you wanted," she said blandly, figuring it wouldn't be good to mention what CD it was with the way Sam's parents were and the way they were acting right then.

The Circus Gothica commercial came on and Sam's parents sneered, Pamela Manson shutting off the TV.

"Now that is something we won't be seeing any time soon," she huffed.

"Mom! But we already bought our tickets," Sam growled. "It's just harmless entertainment. Right, Danny?"

"Cross over to the Dark Side," Danny murmured.

The others stared at her, Sam in worry and Sam's parents in confusion.

"This isn't like Danny," Jeremy Manson stated, walking over and waving a hand in front of the girl's face.

"Cross over –"

Sam groaned and shook her friend, watching as Danny blinked rapidly.

"Wha –"

"You totally spaced after the commercial and started muttering 'Cross over to the Dark Side' over and over."

Danny groaned, "Why does this always happen? They _always_ somehow manage to target me. That's it –no Circus Gothica! There's obviously a ghost involved and I am _not_ going to be hypnotized by a ghost. Again."

"For the umpteenth time," Sam smirked.

Danny threw her hands, "That's it! School! Now!"

"But –"

"No buts, Sam! We. Are. Going. To. _School_," Danny huffed and whirled around, stomping out the door.

"You could have her attitude, Samantha," Jeremy looked pointedly at his daughter.

"Though she could wear more normal clothing. She's a girl, not a boy," Pamela frowned.

Sam frowned back. "It's personal," she snapped at them. "Danny can wear whatever she wants."

"If only her parents would actually do something –"

Sam cut her mother off, hissing, "Her parents have nothing to do with it! It's all to do with some jerkoff boyfriend she had a long time ago, and I swear to God if you say _anything_ about her clothes…"

Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows, "You wouldn't be saying that Danny's the girl from the jock scandal a couple years back, are you Samantha?"

Sam faltered, staring at her parents.

"What? How did you know about that?"

Pamela nervously wrung her hands, "All the parents kind of got wind of it, but only the ones involved knew who was part of the scandal…"

"D-don't say anything to her…she's not…she's still not over it," Sam muttered, finding her backpack and hurrying out the door.

She saw Danny pouting a couple steps away from her house and she joined her friend pretty quickly.

"I'm cutting 1st period to see the opening ceremony. Tucker's got it free, so he's covering for me. Coming?" Sam forced a smirk onto her face.

Danny rolled her eyes, "Oh, alright. If only to make sure you're okay and we're not imagining the ghost thing. Plus, I'm not cutting. I promised Lancer I'd make a report on the thing and he got me a day off to watch and observe."

"Lucky," Sam sniffed. "I should've thought of that."

"But you wouldn't have done it."

"Nope."

The girls shared a laugh.

At the opening, Freakshow appeared, rousting the huge crowd of Goths and rallying them into a fervor, showcasing his circus' talent.

"This is the greatest moment ever. Nothing can ruin this for me."

"Parents of Amity Park! We urge you to boycott this assault on the morals of our children!" and there goes Sam's mother, a crowd of riled parents behind her and her husband faithfully by her side.

The crowd of Goths reacted with booing.

"What are they doing here? Why can't they have day jobs like regular parents?" Sam gritted her teeth, hunching low to avoid being seen.

Freakshow made his little speech in his defense, rousing the Goths and Sam watched in practically slow motion as she saw Danny wobble forward. Her friend grinned dazedly, holding up a fist.

"Hey, everyone! We're Danny Fenton and Sam Manson. We cut school and proud of it!" Sam watched it happen like a train crash, and then some random Goth went up to Danny and spray painted the odd white shirt her friend actually chose to wear that day.

"You're one of us now," the random Goth kid stated drearily.

Sam's parents immediately zeroed in on them and Sam groaned.

In no time, the two were taken to school and were in Principal Ishiyama's office. The principal started lecturing them on cutting and truancy and proper school attendance, Tucker shoved in there in his Sam getup soon after.

"Wait a second, you were allowed to miss school today, Miss Fenton. What are you doing here?" Lancer cut in, and both he and Principal Ishiyama stared at her.

Danny shrugged, leaning back in her chair.

"Support?"

"Out, Miss Fenton. Go back and start on my report," Lancer said dryly, rolling his eyes.

Danny shrugged apologetically at Sam before giving her a two-finger salute, jogging out of the office and back to Circus Gothica.

"You can't let her go," Sam blurted out. "There's a ghost there. It keeps hypnotizing Danny."

"Well, Danny Fenton _is_, in all actuality, the most competent ghost hunter in Amity Park," Principal Ishiyama informed them. Huh. That was news. She hadn't really thought about how Danny (Danny, Danny –not her ghost counterpart) was viewed by the city or that her friend was considered just that good. "When her parents are on the job, they too can be just as formidable, only they tend to…let's just say run off track at times. So I'm sure Miss Fenton can take care of herself and that she's probably heading over there now to take care of the ghost problem."

"Not when they're hypnotizing her," Tucker came to Sam's defense.

"Be that as it may, Miss Fenton is already gone. Besides, why would they hypnotize her anyways?"

Sam, Tucker, and Lancer's faces shuttered and turned blank.

Principal Ishiyama coughed nervously, staring at them strangely and feeling as if she was missing something.

"I must say, Miss Manson, Mr. Foley, the two of you are to serve detention with Lancer."

"Don't worry, Samantha," Pamela smiled at her daughter. "That man invited the parents and naysayers to a special showing a little later. We'll look after Danny for you."

"That's one of the things I'm afraid of," Sam muttered.

Freakshow started the entertainment; his regular acts performing for the crowd of discontent parents, authority figures, police, and etcetera. But he had something special in plan for them.

"Ladies and gentlemen! You're in luck! I have something a little extra to please your eyes with! Welcome, the Grim Reaper!"

A light shone on the tightrope, showing a figure in a tattered cloak similar to the ones Jazz and Sam had donned on Halloween. The scythe the grim figure carried was, however, far more menacing than the replicas the girls had had. The so-called Grim Reaper started walking across the tightrope, carrying the scythe before the Reaper began nail-bitingly twirling the scythe over their head, starting to do more and more elaborate twirls. The twirling picked up speed and then the Reaper began to not just walk on the tightrope at the same time, but began performing a series of martial art moves in sequence.

"Those moves look familiar," Maddie muttered, staring intensely at the performance.

The Mansons and Fentons had instantly clashed, especially over the issue of jumpsuits and attitudes, but both of them were equally bothered at watching.

In the middle of the tightrope, the Grim Reaper stopped. Silence and everyone waited with baited breath.

And then the Grim Reaper let their self fall, spreading their arms and clutching the scythe.

Everyone gasped, some leaping forward, and all with wide eyes. But then the figure calmly performed twists and twirls in the air as they fell, forcefully throwing the scythe like a javelin and its blade embedded itself into the ground and stood upright. And then somehow the Grim Reaper slowed to a stop, gently landing one foot onto the end of the scythe that was in the air, the other leg bent slightly before coming down and letting the Reaper stand on one foot and the other in the air beside it.

"Darling," Freakshow's voice boomed around them. "Why don't you show them who you are?"

And then the Grim Reaper's pale and slender hands reached up to the edge of their hood, letting it fall backward to reveal the detached face of Danny Fenton.

Danny had finally been found.

Immediately, Jack and Maddie reacted.

"You monster! What have you done with our daughter?" Maddie screeched, leaping onto her feet and taking out a smaller version of the ecto-gun.

"She's under my control, sweetheart, so enjoy the show as your daughter gives the performance of her life!"

Danny leaped off the scythe and landed cat-like onto the ground, hand whipping out to grab the scythe and smoothly removed it from it's resting place, twirling it dangerously before posing the weapon in front of her, holding it in a reverse hold with the blade pointing downwards. The hand not holding the end of the pole, glided down it before caressing the blade lovingly.

"Time to play," Danny said softly, tilting her head.

And the other ghosts burst into existence behind her, flying forward in a cacophony of cackling and screeches.

Maddie and Jack stared their daughter down, seeing no one but their daughter. But she didn't recognize them.

"Danny! It's your daddy," Jack stepped forward. "You can fight it. Whatever that ghost has done to you, you can fight against it!"

Danny smiled blankly, "Master isn't a ghost."

Then she darted forward and swung the scythe in a downward arc between the two, separating her parents as they dashed sideways to avoid being sliced. Danny kneeled down for a moment, hair settling as she tightened her grip on the scythe. Deeming Maddie more of a threat, she quickly turned and swung the scythe towards the red-haired woman, who kept dodging, unwilling to attack her daughter.

"Maddie, to your left!" Jack screamed and she instinctively followed his command, avoiding the kick Danny aimed at her that she didn't noticed, having been too busy focusing avoiding the sharp blade.

Jack was hesitating, not willing to go on the offensive either. But he charged forward, trying to distract his daughter from his wife, purposely missing his hits. Not that he could land one anyway, with the way Danny was scarily weaving around them.

And while the three Fentons were in a contained battle, the rest of the crowd was in disarray, screaming and running around in terror. The Mansons were trying to gather everyone up to fight back, but then they were ousted by several of the ghosts. Glimpsing the Fentons, Jeremy looked over to his wife.

"Should we go over there?"

Seeing the viciousness of the battle, all of it focused from Danny and forcing her parents to reciprocate, Pamela shuddered.

"Darling, I think we'd just get in the way."

But soon enough, everyone was rounded up, pushed into groups and subdued, the fun completely had for now. Danny's face was stoic, guarding over her parents, who had been tied up next to the Mansons.

"Please, Danny. This isn't you. You know you don't want to do this," Maddie pleaded.

Danny ignored them, turning to the midget ghost that appeared. He floated up and snickered, placing a golden crown onto her head.

"A crown for the Queen piece!"

The other ghosts started laughing as Danny glared, taking a swipe at him with the scythe. The ghost turned intangible before floating away cackling. Unfazed, Danny kept guard; seemingly looking even more menacing with the crown perched tall on her head, as she didn't bother to remove it.

"Danielle," Pamela started out hesitantly.

"It's Danny. It's not short for anything," Jack snapped at her, still feeling a bit irritated with the Mansons for discriminating against them and jumpsuits.

"Danny," Jeremy cut in. "Our Samantha pleaded for us to look after you…so please, listen to your parents. Break free of the spell."

He was ignored, Danny's narrowed eyes glaring and focused on the moving ghosts who were galloping around and messing with each other and chests of stolen goods.

"Get to work!" she screamed, upper lip curling in disdain.

Well, it was change from the disturbing blank Danny.

Maddie was going to try again when she saw a blond woman clutch at her husband's arm, his equally as blond hair shaking as he whispered agitatedly to her. She watched in confusion as the man nervously got up, drawing attention to him as he walked tentatively towards the volatile girl.

"Danny," he uncertainly started out, and her parents wondered how he knew their daughter. "My name is Topher. Baxter. Topher Baxter. Dash's father?"

Her eyes flickered over to him and that encouraged him.

"He talks about you a lot," he began conversationally. "Good stuff. Happy to have you in his life, grateful for your help in school…how he wishes he wasn't so popular so he could hang out with you more."

Oh, his son would kill him if he found out he was telling all this, especially to the girl in question and especially after his promise. Then again, he _had_ only promised not to say anything about her being Phantom or anything about Jack Madden.

"He liked pretending to be a dad, you know. He loved the whole pretend thing, with you. He's a much different kid than he was last year. My son is happier, more goal-oriented, and he's taking things much more seriously and responsibly. A good influence from you, I bet."

Danny had fully turned towards him, face neutral.

"Dash and Kwan…they'll miss you if you decide to just leave them behind and stay with these people," he said gently. He winced, remembering hearing his son ranting earlier that morning about her new boyfriend. "Special Agent W would be even more unhappy," he murmured, so that only she could hear him. He doubted her parents knew their daughter had tentatively started dating again.

Danny's eyes flickered from the red it was to blue for a moment, before it went back to red and she snarled and took a threatening step towards him. Then it flickered back to blue and she faltered, whimpering as she doubled forward, clutching at her head.

"Staff," she gasped out. "R-red staff."

The red-hooded ghost floated over.

"Is there something wrong?" she rasped out.

Danny straightened up, turning sharply to glare at her.

"No," she snapped. "Just a stupid man."

"The Master wishes for you to help him with a matter outside."

Danny sneered, but nodded.

The other ghosts went back to milling around and Danny was gone, but the Baxters were already moving towards the Fentons and the Mansons.

"The staff. That red staff Freakshow keeps waving around," Topher blurted out to the group. "That's what's controlling Danny. If we can take that staff, we can break his control over her."

Maddie and Jack's eyes lit up in understanding.

"We'll take the ghosts if you can take Freakshow. He's human, Danny said so. He has nothing except his ghosts and if we're on them and distract Danny, he can't fight back himself. Pamela, Jeremy, rally the others and rouse a revolt. Try to break out of here."

"We're good on that. It's what we're best at –gathering angry parents and causing a riot," Pamela beamed.

"When Freakshow comes in here, we take that chance before he decides to do another no-show," Maddie told them.

And they waited.

But they didn't expect Freakshow to come back with Danny, leading the group of kids and Lancer and Julian behind them.

"Fuck," Topher muttered under his breath, his wife elbowing him for his language.

Dash looked apologetically at his parents before he was roughly pushed forward and grouped with the others to the side. Freakshow wandered closer to the group of parents, and Topher took the chance to race towards the gray-skinned ring leader and threw him to the ground, the two of them struggling over the staff as his wife ran after them to help him get an edge. Pamela and Jeremy turned towards the grouped parents and assembled them together, the parents quickly turning from fright to anger and becoming mob-like.

Jack and Maddie brought out their weapons and began taking out the ghosts expertly, but failed to attract Danny's attention. Their daughter ignored the mob and their attempts to draw her to them, instead focused entirely on reaching Freakshow. The group of kids stared in shock, especially at their parents, while Lancer also was biting his nails in anxiety. Julian, seeing what was going on, propelled himself from the group and tore towards Danny, tackling her and struggled with her for a few moments, glad she seemed to be fighting it as there was no way he would have been able to have lasted that long.

Sierra had finally yanked the staff away, wasting no time in slamming the glass sphere into the ground, shattering it.

Julian closed his eyes, waiting for the blow, but when it didn't come he opened them and saw Danny pause, her fist inches from his face as her own was clouded with first confusion and then awareness. She grimaced and climbed off him, helping him get up as she silently turned in a circle to observe the chaos around her.

"Some party," she muttered.

"Yeah," Julian sighed, shoving a hand through his hair.

"Catch ya in a sec."

The other ghosts broke out of the spell as well, shaking their heads to clear them before flying away from the circus. The red-hooded ghost stayed, her tattoos continuing to attack and her parents taking care of them. Seeing Dash's parents perfectly fine with Freakshow, she turned to the red-cloaked ghost and began running towards her, the running jump allowing her to use the momentum to run up one of the poles on one end of the high wire, catching the Fenton Thermos Tucker threw at her, and completing the Fenton family expertly executed ghost conquest by sucking the ghost into it.

She landed in between her parents, all three triumphantly standing together.

"Mom, can I go meet a friend in Washington? D.C. I mean," Danny asked softly.

"Sweetie, Vlad's in Wisconsin," Maddie smiled.

Danny hid her grimace, "I'm not talking about Vlad, Mom. Um…you haven't met him yet."

"Him?" Jack scowled, though he glanced at Maddie meaningfully.

"…You'll meet him soon, I promise. You've seen him around," Danny revealed. "Please?"

Seeing how important this was to Danny, Maddie cut in before Jack could say anything.

"Alright, Danny. We'll get you a ticket, but you have to call us once you're there."

"It's okay. He'll probably send over his private plane," Danny glanced away from them.

"I don't like it, but I'm worried about you, sweetheart. We're having a talk when you get home," Jack promised.

Danny sighed.

Agent K and O burst onto the scene.

"What'd we miss?!"

Ames waited at the airport, worriedly waiting for his girlfriend to land in his private plane. Seeing her, he hurried over to her.

"Hey," he greeted quietly, offering a small smile.

She returned it more tiredly and he gathered her up in his arms.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She buried her face into his chest, her small hands reaching up and grasping onto the lapels of his jacket.

"No…I just wanted to be here with you."

Ames nodded and hurried her to his car, glancing over to her every once and awhile as he drove to his home. He had unwillingly been sent back to deal with the arrangements of moving his stuff to Amity, reluctant to just leave them to be messed around with without his supervision. He also had to meet with his superiors to ask for an official move of the headquarters of XO13 from Washington D.C. to Amity Park, suiting with the fact it was ghost central which was the main function of the division. And that had to be done in person.

"I'm sorry. I should've been there," he murmured.

She stayed quiet until a sigh was heard from her.

"I didn't know if I should come here…if I should seek you out. I thought, you're supposed to be my boyfriend so it's normal, but at the same time I was still unsure and didn't know if I would just be bothering you," she shrugged. "But I needed you. So I ended up coming."

"Danny, you know you can tell me anything, right? You can come to me for anything. You will never be bothering me," he took one hand from the wheel and took hers in his. "This _is_ kind of early for me to show a girl my place, though," he teased.

A smile tugged at her lips, "But you're not going to be living there for much longer."

"Ah, but I am for the next some hours, so it counts."

Danny, feeling more cheered, tightened her hold on his hand and leaned on his side, starting to drift to sleep.

"You won't hurt me, will you?" she murmured sleepily.

He glanced at her in surprise, nearly crashing into a pole. He neatly parked to the side.

"Of course not, Danny. I would never. Why would you suggest such a thing?"

She whimpered in her sleep, "Please don't hurt me. Not like him. I think I really, really like you."

"I really, really like you too, Danny," he moved a piece of her hair out of her face, keeping note to find out who this 'him' was.

She didn't say anything else in her sleep, so he started his car again and began driving.

Started 3/1/10 –Completed 3/5/10


	16. Beatae Memoriae

Disclaimer: Not the big man…just a fanfic author.  
Story: Danny Fenton, best friend of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, sophomore at Casper High, and very much a tomboy. That's right, Danny is as female as they come. Well, minus the clothing and attitude.  
Set as an AU, genderbending fic.  
Spoilers: For episode S2.1 ("Memory Blank", series continuity order) and mention of future episodes.  
Warnings: Allusions to rape, violence, cursing, sexual situations...  
Pairings: Danny/Dash, Danny/Kwan, one-sided (most of the time) Danny/Ghosts, various odd smidgens of Danny/OCs, _sort of_ Vlad/Danny, future pairings to be announced...

Chapter Sixteen: _Beatae Memoriae _–**Of Blessed Memory**

**Danny Fenton's Divine Comedy  
**_Chapter Sixteen: Beatae Memoriae_

"Your posture's wrong," Danny straightened Agent K, real name Kayden, out, who groaned because the new position had him almost doubled backwards.

Agent O, also known as Oliver, whimpered.

"Ma'am, why are we doing this again?" Oliver gasped out.

"Because yoga will improve your health and reduce stress. It will improve your breathing and to learn to control it. It will balance your mind and body. It will calm your mind; teach you poise, balance and strength. Hell, you might even become enlightened," Danny sneered, staring down at them. "Your minds will be mastered. Your ability to concentrate will be improved. You will be flexible both in mind and body, and grow a stronger discipline physically, emotionally, mentally, and morally."

"Which type of yoga are you teaching them, drill sergeant?" Ames asked.

"Hatha," she snapped at him. "It will better serve my teachings, especially in regards to their bodies. And Raja, becomes it comes hand and hand with Hatha. Stop showing off, Ames."

He held up his hands, "Sorry, sorry."

"Oliver, Kayden, return position!"

Both agents snapped up straight, fast and ramrod. Danny sighed.

"No! In yoga, you have to be _smooth_ and move back in normal position slowly and relaxed, not rigid and stressed out. Remember, breathe in and out. Relax. Slowly, be patient. Be _serene_. Tranquil. Peaceful," she lectured and then demonstrated for them.

"Better. I'll see you two in three hours time for Wing Chun practice. You better have had the first ten taolu memorize. I don't care if you can't do it right, at least be able to know them," she dismissed them, before waiting until they left to turn to Ames grumpily. "You, mister, are entirely too much of a show-off."

He shrugged, grinning at her. "Sorry. I was just trying to irritate you."

"You _wanted_ to irritate me?" she glowered.

He laughed, "Of course. I was trying to get your focus off of them for a second, even if slightly. I was hoping to channel your frustration from them to me. I'm guessing it worked."

She faltered, looking at him confused.

"Danny," he tugged her closer and kissed her lips lightly, "You can be a bit harsh. They _are_ trying, you know. But you have such high expectations, for such a little girl, and they're a little intimidated. They're trying all they can to keep up and please you, sweetheart."

She flushed red in embarrassment, "I hadn't realized I was being so demanding. It's how I work myself, so I assumed they would be able to handle it. I adjust my teaching pace to suit Kwan and Dash, but because Kayden and Oliver are older I'd automatically thought they would be able to do more. I should have adjusted for them."

"Hey, no worries. And about Kwan and Dash…" he laughed in amusement.

Danny groaned, "I am _so_ sorry about them. I had no idea they would try to corner you like that."

"No, it's fine. They're worried about you, so it's understandable."

"Still, I wish they would've come to me first about any of their concerns. I'm sorry, Ames. They're just being overprotective, idiots that they are. They're just looking out for me."

Ames nodded, smiling, but he didn't tell her he had a feeling that the boys were also jealous.

"You want to practice now or do you want to wait until tonight?"

"Mm, sounds good now. I want to move up soon and I need practice for it."

They were just getting into it when Danny's cell rang and she rolled her eyes.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" he asked, wiping sweat off of his forehead.

She sighed, heading over to the bench and taking a towel to wipe off her own sweat, looking for her phone at the same time. He watched her listen in exasperation, muttering some things back, before hanging up.

"A problem?"

"Yeah, by the name of Jazz. She's decided that she's going to try a trust experiment with me to help my 'trust issues,'" she held mimicked quotation marks with her fingers.

"Trust issues?" he tilted his head, looking at her.

She looked away, "It's…nothing. It's just a long story."

He opened his mouth, but instead closed it and shook his head. He met her at the bench and comfortably settled his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. Turning his head, he kissed her cheek.

"Okay. Whatever you say, Danny. So when are we leaving?"

"Leaving?" she asked, closing her eyes as she leaned back against him.

"You should just humor your sister. Sounds like fun anyways. I'll go with you," his breath tickled first her ear and then her neck when she tilted her head back to rest against his shoulder.

She pouted, "Oh, alright. As long as you're there."

That's why, half an hour later, the two of them were in her basement with a whole group of others, Oliver and Kayden following like puppies. With a circle of chairs, and Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Dash, and Kwan sitting in them, Danny was set in the middle with a grumpy smile.

Jazz blinked at Ames, "Sorry, who are you?"

He smiled awkwardly, but it was Danny who answered.

"He's a friend. He's one of the Guys in White, the leader in fact –Agent W. Um, it's a long story as to how we became friends," Danny explained, seeing Jazz's eyebrows shoot up.

"Oh, well, sit down, sit down. Danny, you stay there. This is how this works. I'll start and say something I want for Danny and then I'll touch Agent W's shoulder and he'll go, and so on. We keep touching so that it becomes a symbol of unity for Danny."

"Jazz, this is ridiculous," Danny scowled.

Jazz waved her off, "It might work, Danny. Or at least give you a warm feeling. Okay, so I want Danny to confide more with the people in this group, or at least with anyone."

The red-head touched Ames' shoulder and he uncomfortably cleared his throat, seeing everyone (read _Danny's_ close friends) staring at him.

"I want Danny to be able to believe she can trust others," _'Most specifically, me,' _he added in his mind, though he knew Danny guessed.

And it went on like that until it went full circle to Sam, who sat on Jazz's other side.

Sam gazed at her friend, offering a sad smile.

"I wish you were never raped by Madden," Sam murmured, it just coming out as she stared at her friend. Her eyes widened when she realized what she revealed out loud, glancing over to a confused, then shocked, and then stone-faced Ames.

But then Desiree appeared, laughing gleefully and looking powerful.

"As you wish it, so shall it be!"

And then bright light flashed brightly and everyone was knocked out. When everyone awoke, it seemed to be the next day and each one of them was in their homes.

So they went about their daily routines.

Ames immediately got ready for the day, before giving orders to Oliver and Kayden to keep familiarizing themselves with Amity Park and then going to Danny's. He saw her waiting at the sidewalk, strangely not with her bike, wearing a pale pink blouse and a gray skirt, knee-high socks with black Mary Janes. Her long hair was pulled back in a high ponytail and she was wearing a slight smile on her face. She was actually wearing a varsity jacket around her.

"Hey, sweetheart," he greeted, coming over and pecking her cheek. "You look cute today."

Danny actually recoiled from him, backing away and staring at him warily.

"I'm sorry, do I _know_ you?" she frowned at him, clutching her bag to her chest.

He stopped short, staring incredulously at her. Then he remembered the events of last night.

"Danny, that ghost did something. I swear, you have to remember me. I'm your _boyfriend_," he pleaded, taking tiny steps towards her.

Then a car roared and parked near the sidewalk, the top open and showing a slightly older than Danny male at the driver's seat. The dirty blond male stepped out of the car, scowling at him as he took his side by Danny.

"He bothering you, Dee?"

"No, Jack. Let's just go," Danny tugged at his sleeve. The couple went into the car and drove off, leaving Ames to stare behind them in disbelief.

"Agent W?" Jazz whispered, peeking out from behind the door.

He slowly turned to face her, dazed at the moment.

"We'll have to talk about that peck to my sister's cheek, as well as what you really are to my sister…but right now I need you to come with me. Sam and Tucker are already here, we're just waiting for Dash and Kwan."

He nodded slowly, "Okay…let me just call Agents K and O and tell them to come as well."

It wasn't long until the group was gathered solemnly and Sam was the one the most miserable.

"Last night, during that trust exercise, Sam made a wish. Desiree, if everyone has been briefed about her, is a ghost who grants wishes, but distorts them in some way. Well, you can see what happened. Jack Madden is still in town and still together with my little sister. He never…forced himself on her, so they never broke up, he never moved, and he's still in her life. In fact, he's attending Amity University and they're _engaged_," the grimace on Jazz's face showed how much she thought of that.

"_Engaged_?" Ames, Kwan, and Dash asked in unison, their faces matching in disgust and upset.

"Yeah, I saw the ring on her finger," Jazz sneered. "The marriage age is 18 and Danny is 15."

"But it's 16, with parental consent," Sam added unhappily.

"And Danny's the baby of the family, so she probably could have gotten permission for the two of them to marry on or after her next birthday. Especially since, before the…incident, Jack was a big part of our family. We all really liked him," there was a bitter edge to Jazz's voice.

"The varsity jacket she's wearing…it belongs to him, doesn't it?" Ames' voice was calm, but everyone could see the turmoil inside him. For once, Kwan and Dash could sympathize and give the guy a break.

Jazz nodded tiredly.

"She didn't say anything to us. She just greeted us politely and walked passed us. I don't get that," Tucker was also plainly frustrated.

"I think," Sam started reluctantly. "That since she stayed with Madden…she drifted from us and probably stayed closer to him and maybe his friends."

"I could find out," Dash muttered. "My brother…my brother was on the same team as Madden, and my parents said that he was friends with Danny before the…incident."

"Rape, okay? Everyone keeps saying 'the incident.' Just say the damn word. It happened, we can't change it," Tucker uncharacteristically shouted.

"But we _did_ change it. _I_ changed it," Sam said quietly.

"We need to go to school," Kwan interrupted. "And when we're in school, we can have a better chance of talking to Danny and a better chance figuring out what's going on, and maybe figure out what we're going to do."

"What can I do?" Ames asked miserably.

Jazz was uncertain, "There isn't much you can do now. The others have a better chance of reaching and talking to Danny because they go to school with her and she knows them. Maybe you and the other agents can go keep a lookout for Desiree and maybe capture her."

Ames reluctantly nodded and the three agents went to go do their jobs, as the teenagers anxiously went to school. It was worse than it had been that morning. Any attempts to talk to her were thwarted by the seniors, most of which were popular –more popular than Dash and his group. Danny was also, to their utter amazement, a cheerleader and the cheer captain at that. She was still quiet, smart, and almost entirely the same, but she was less abrasive and she smiled more. She seemed happier…

"There has to be something wrong," Jazz stated in frustration. "Desiree messes up all the wishes she grants. Why would this one be any different?"

"Why does something have to be wrong?" Sam asked defensively, strangely very quiet about the whole thing.

She was stared at. She frowned back at them.

"Danny's happy. Isn't that a good thing?" Sam stated quietly, before turning and walking away unhappily.

"It most certainly isn't a good thing!" Tucker shouted at her back before stomping the other way.

Jazz sighed, "Alright. Kwan, Dash, I'm counting on you two."

"Um, okay, Jazz. If _we_ can actually do anything. We have a more horrible history with her than obviously Tuck and Sam," Kwan winced. "We may not have bullied her before high school, but we didn't know each other at all."

"It would be strange if Kwan and me just suddenly popped up, trying to talk to her," Dash added.

"It's not implausible," Jazz insisted. "The two of you, even Kwan now, are popular and jocks. And boys. Danny's a pretty girl, cheerleader, and popular now. It wouldn't be a stretch for the two of you wanting to talk to her. And even if she mistakes it as interest in her, Danny's too much of a sweetheart to refuse you two entirely. At the least, she'll humor you or let you hang around her."

"Fine," both boys agreed reluctantly.

"Good. Now get out of here and go do your jobs!"

It wasn't as easy as Jazz made it out to be. The seniors, all who had lived under Madden's reign as practical high school king when he was a senior, all abided by him still and knew that Danny was _his_ girl. So that meant blocking off all boys who looked and acted like they liked or were too interested in all but crowned high school queen Danny Fenton. And unluckily, both Dash and Kwan were obviously crushing on her and they were no match for the sharp eyes of the seniors who guarded after Danny like a lion with her cubs.

"This sucks," Dash muttered, pushing around his food.

"Tell me about it," Kwan muttered, equally as unhappy.

"Can I join your misery party?" Sam walked towards them, her plate loosely held in her hands.

Tucker walked behind her stoically.

"Made up then, the two of you?" Dash asked without interest.

"Yeah, something like that," Tucker grunted.

The group sat at the table, all quiet and miserable, and then looked over to see Danny surrounded by seniors all the way on the other side, laughing and smiling.

"She doesn't smile and laugh like that with us," Tucker noted dejectedly.

"Because we got the Danny that was messed up by Madden," Sam snapped at him. "Since he didn't do shit here, she's fine. She's happy. She's – " she stopped suddenly, gasping. "Oh no…I think I might know what Desiree changed."

"What?" Kwan sat up straight, staring at her.

"Look, I don't have proof now, but I need to make sure before I share what I think with you guys," Sam explained really fast, before abruptly standing and leaving them to look for Jazz.

* * *

The young man, enjoying life at college, was currently picking up his girlfriend from school. Green eyes blinked in confusion, seeing two jocks shyly and nervously talking to Danny, who was smiling politely and nodding every once in a while. Getting out of his Corvette, he strode over to them, gazing at the boys coolly.

"Problem, Dee?" he scowled.

Danny smiled at him and he relaxed.

"No. We're ready to go?"

"Yeah, come on," he secured his old varsity jacket around her, staring at the jocks suspiciously before leading her off.

"Bye, Kwan, Dash," Danny said over her shoulder. "It was nice meeting you two!"

"Popular today, aren't you?" Jack frowned to himself.

"Jealous?" she teased, a playful smile dancing across her lips.

"Oh yeah. I can't wait until you're in college with me. I can stop worrying about all those other boys," he pouted.

"Cute, Jack," she rolled her eyes. "Just don't be too possessive. You don't want me to be wary of you, now do you?"

He huffed, "I can't help it. It's just…you're really pretty and popular, Dee. And everyone likes you. And I mean _everyone_."

His quiet tone put her off and she stopped, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Hey now, where's my cocky idiot? I don't want to hear you moping, you hear me? I demand you take me to the mall and serve all my needs," she grinned at him, and her grin widened when she saw him relax and start to smile.

"Okay, okay. Let's go then."

After they hung out in the mall, he took her to the park where they just strolled around. He grinned teasingly, grabbing her by the waist and swinging her around, pushing her up against a tree and kissing her. Hearing her moan, his tongue assertively touched against her lips, waiting for them to open. Once she obliged, his tongue touched against hers, wrestling for control.

His hands moved from her waist to the hem of her shirt, slipping underneath them.

Danny broke away, face flushed.

"Hey, a little too much for the park? We _are_ still in a public place."

He kissed and nibbled at her neck, slightly shaking his head.

"The fun is in all the risk."

She laughed huskily, one arm wrapped casually against his lower back as the other drifted to his head to hold him in place, encouragingly threading her fingers through his hair. His fingers glided against her smooth back, stopping at her bra. Unclasping it, his hand was about to move to her front and had lightly brushed against one of her breasts when a throat cleared and they were interrupted.

The two broke away from each other, looking in the direction at where the noise had come from, seeing the blond man from that morning. Jack scowled at him, more so when Danny slipped away and hid behind him, clasping her bra and smoothing the front of her clothes down.

"Public place, kids. No inappropriate activities in the park," he growled at them.

Jack barely refrained from sneering, "And who the hell are you, old man?"

The sunglass-wearing man twitched and didn't bother to stop himself from sneering.

"I'm with the government, Special Agent W. Don't let me catch the two of you fooling around again, you hear?"

Jack grunted, grabbing Danny's hand and stomping off with her.

In half an hour, an odd group had assembled at the Nasty Burger. Ames had reluctantly related what he saw at the park.

"…Danny was raped by Madden…I wished she never was…so…what if she wasn't _raped_? What if she's…you know…having sex with him?" Sam explained uncomfortably.

"That's illegal," Tucker hissed.

"I know that," Sam frowned at him. "But it doesn't mean it's not happening."

"How old is he anyway?" Dash huffed, glancing quickly at Ames and remembering a similar time he'd asked that question about the man.

"They're five years apart, so Jack's 20," Jazz answered.

"Which means, if he's sleeping with her he's committing aggravated criminal sexual abuse," Ames stated firmly, scowling.

"They're engaged," Tucker pointed out.

"But they're not married yet," Jazz scowled with Ames. "They have some time before Danny's 16 and they can marry, in which case they shouldn't be sexually involved at all until then."

"We don't have proof," Sam interrupted. "We know they have heavy make outs, and have gone near, if not already touched, third base. We don't know if they'd gone all the way now and we certainly haven't caught them at it."

"So what? We're just going to spy on Danny until we do?" Kwan asked sarcastically.

"You know, that's not a half-bad idea," Jazz said, a glint in her eyes saying she was actually considering it.

"No, no, no," Sam held up her hands. "We are not invading Danny's privacy."

"I'm in," the guys all agreed.

Sam groaned, "You guys have to be kidding! This is Danny we're talking about. She'll be pissed off. You're lucky she doesn't know any of you, she would be even worse!"

"Not if she doesn't find out," Jazz smirked. "I'll take her out, leave the back door open for one of you to sneak in. I'll warn you when we're heading back, so you have time to sneak out. The rest of you can spy on her while one of us is snooping around her room."

"What about your mom and dad?" Kwan was wary.

"Working. They get so into inventing new ghost inventions that they sometimes forget to even sleep."

"I'll go, since I have experience in this kind of thing, and just in case your parents decide to be aware beyond work," Ames volunteered.

Kwan and Dash reluctantly agreed while Tucker looked like he was thinking about something.

"…Why do _we_ remember? Everyone and everything has been changed to fit with the changes for Sam's wish, but we still remember how it really was," Tucker furrowed his eyebrows.

Everyone realized that as well.

"I think, because my dad was making me wear that Spectre Deflector because he thought I was being haunted by ghosts that day, that's why I wasn't affected. And when we were touching during the trust exercise, the thing included the rest of you as well. So Desiree's powers couldn't change us," Jazz guessed.

"Alright, are we clear on what we should do?" Dash asked.

Everyone nodded, Sam reluctantly so.

So the next day, Jazz took Danny out to the inner city for more expensive and posh shopping. The group of teens trailed behind in one of Sam's vehicles, a nondescript van. Ames took that time to sneak into Fenton Works, heading into their home and straight to Danny's room, his footsteps not making a sound. While he worked, he really hoped Kayden and Oliver were doing their jobs, because he really wanted to get his hands on that ghost and for this whole thing to be over. And for Danny to be his girl again.

This was the first time he'd been in her room and it sucked that it was this way instead of clandestine romantic meetings, stolen kisses in the dark of her room, holding her on her bed…

He sighed in aggravation, starting his search. He first started through her drawers, shifting through clothing, and pausing when he reached her underwear drawer. Feeling like a pervert but not being able to help himself, he slowly shifted through it, blushing as he saw a lot of lacy boy short panties and matching bras. Relieved and at the same time not that he was finally done looking through it, he turned his attention to Danny's bed. He kneeled down and was about to look at a box he found there when he heard footsteps quickly heading to the room.

Panicking, he darted to the closet and kept it opened slightly for him to peek through. He frowned when he saw Danny and that old boyfriend of hers come into the room, immediately making out and falling onto the bed. He spared time to put his cell on silent so it wouldn't accidentally ring and alert the two to his presence, but he started to feel more upset and like a voyeur when he saw the two begin to become really serious.

Danny had taken Jack's shirt off and he was working on slipping her baby blue shirt off of her slim shoulders, when Danny had pushed him onto his back and had climbed on top of him. She kissed down his chest, reaching his belt and taking it off.

Ames sat still and stoic, unmoving and growing more and more depressed and distressed as he watched the two going at it. Each gasp, each moan was like a stab to his heart. He hadn't expected to grow so seriously in love with her this fast, but he did and now he was watching his heart being torn apart and strewn into pieces all over the place.

"Jack, Jack," she chanted breathily.

"I love you, Danny," he murmured staggering into her ear.

Ames put his head in his hands, hung it between his knees and started crying, clutching onto his head and feeling his heart clench in his chest in pain.

Unable to leave anyway, he stayed there the whole night, practically unmoving from his position. The next morning, Danny got ready for school and left, Jack in tow to drop her off. Ames just stayed in the closet, lying against the wall in exhaustion and grief, blankly staring in front of him as he slumped his shoulders and his head lolled to the side. Sighing, he threw himself out of the closet and forced himself to crawl towards the door, pulling himself up and then walking through the house like a zombie, uncaring if he got caught. He ended up at the park, where he found a bench and laid down on it, just still blankly staring up at the sky until his mind shut down and he fell asleep.

Meanwhile, lunchtime at school, Danny was sitting alone for once. Kwan immediately started towards her, and she let him sit with her in surprise. Dash hesitated, glancing between her table and the table he usually sat in with his group of popular kids. They were staring at him expectantly.

_"You got to choose what's more important –your reputation to a bunch of nobodies or being with a girl who makes you happy."_

He made up his mind and joined Kwan and Danny.

After school, the group met at the Nasty Burger to update their progress, watching uncertainly as Ames staggered through the doors and continued to walk unsteadily towards them.

"Special Agent W?" Jazz nervously asked.

"Ames. You're all Danny's friends, so you might as well know my first name," he blankly said, sitting himself down heavily.

"What can I get you?" a waitress appeared to take his order.

"Vodka, straight," he grunted.

The waitress stared at him apprehensively, "Um, we don't sell alcoholic beverages here, sir."

Ames stared at her.

"Ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream."

He'll deal with a sugar overload for now.

"What happened to you?" Dash smirked, still in a good mood from his lunch.

"I can arrest him, right? I'm with the government so I can arrest him?" Ames muttered, thumping his head to lie on the table.

The group all looked confused. Ames sighed, straightening up and forcing himself to concentrate, wiping a hand down his face.

"Jazz, I didn't get your messages about Danny coming home early –they kind of came late anyway. She was already home by the time you'd text me," Ames started. "She went into her room and I had to hide in the closet. She wasn't alone. She brought _him_. They went and did it several times on her bed."

His earlier words made much more sense and everyone paled.

"Wait, you saw them…" Kwan didn't know how to finish his question, so he just looked helplessly at the government agent.

Ames stared blankly at him.

The group winced in pain for him, each knowing on some level how close he was to Danny. His ice cream came in a huge bowl, overfilling it with chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavors. He dug into it and blocked out the world, focusing on his comfort food, ignoring especially that of Sam telling him he couldn't arrest Madden because then he would have to explain how he found out and then why was he snooping around Danny's room in the first place…

Jazz cleared her throat, turning to Sam, "Um, what exactly is Spec –er, Ames to Danny?"

Sam's eyes widened, "He's…Danny's boyfriend. Or he was."

Jazz glanced sharply at him, but her gaze softened, unable to muster up any ill feelings at him at the moment with the way he was.

"Things will go back to normal. It has to," she swore.

* * *

"Paulina's birthday is tonight," Sam brought up.

Dash grunted, "Yeah, I'm invited to that thing."

"It's also the night of the meteor shower."

"So?" Tucker glowered at the floor.

Sam sighed, "People _wish_ on shooting stars, and the majority of people will be at Paulina's birthday party."

"Desiree will be there!" Kwan immediately brightened up.

"Finally," she rolled her eyes. "Kwan, Tucker, and I will be at the outskirts where she will probably be. Dash, you'll be at the party so try to do damage control and do what you can to make sure people's wishes don't wreck havoc there. I'll talk to Jazz and Ames about what they can do."

At the same time as Sam started planning, Jazz had entered her baby sister's room quietly, watching her sister brush her hair on her bed.

"Danny, can I talk to you?"

"Sure, Jazz."

Jazz took a deep breath, "You've been sleeping with Jack, Danny."

Her little sister whirled around to face her with outraged eyes.

"How would you know that? Were you spying on me?" Danny didn't even bother to deny it.

Jazz lifted her chin up defiantly, "So what if I was? Danny, he shouldn't even be touching you like that! You're not married and even if you were, you would be too young to be married!"

Danny quickly got to her feet.

"What would you know? I love him and he loves me! We're not doing anything wrong," she hissed, glaring at her older sister.

"You don't know him, Danny. What if you'd said no that day when you went to check on him in the locker room?" by the paling of Danny's face, Jazz's guess was correct. "What if you had said no and didn't give in? He would have raped you. I know he would." Because it actually happened. "And you two wouldn't still be together, like you are now because you gave in and slept with him."

Danny shook her head in denial, ignoring the tears rapidly dripping from her eyes.

"No, you don't understand," she cried out, her arms flying to wrap around her shoulders as she curled into herself. "I loved him…I didn't want him to leave me. I just wanted him to stay with me, to love me back…"

Jazz didn't hesitate, coming closer and holding onto her sister, letting Danny cry onto her shoulder.

And when Sam called to tell her of the plans, she had a feeling that everything was going to be all right.

That night, Sam and her group were scouting the area as Dash fidgeted in his suit, glad that he didn't have to wear a tuxedo. He'd save that uncomfortable mess for Prom. He caught sight of Danny, looking beautiful as always, wearing that sexy halter dress he remembered she wore during the Spring Dance with that Aragon dude. Her hair was similarly curled and piled up.

Unfortunately, she was hanging onto the arm of Jack Madden, who looked as unwelcome as always.

Then the stars started shooting and he geared up for work.

He missed Danny disappearing with Madden off somewhere closer to the woods.

But Ames didn't. He had been assigned to deal with Danny and he would. So he trailed after the two, watching as the two laughed and walked through the grassy plains and followed the path up hills to a nice clearing.

"Dee…Danny, I love you so much," the young man murmured.

Danny smiled brightly, "I love you too. I can't wait until we get married."

Forcing away his sneer but letting himself scowl, he broke cover and stomped towards them, catching the couple's attention and who stared at him incredulously and in disbelief.

"You again? What the hell are doing? Perving on us?" Jack snarled.

Ames ignored him, taking them by surprise by grabbing Danny's wrists and pulling her closer to him.

"_He _doesn't love you, Danny. I do," he said desperately, kissing her soundly the next second.

Jack angrily started towards them, yanking the two apart just as he disappeared. Danny faltered, stumbling a couple steps away from Ames as she clutched her head. And then she straightened up, taking deep breaths.

"I guess Jazz and the others got Desiree," Ames' voice cracked.

"Ames," she murmured softly, coming closer and reaching up to grasp his face. "Oh, sweetheart…some way to find out what happened to me, huh?"

But he didn't echo her smile, tugging her closer as he held onto her, burrowing his face into her neck.

She hummed into his ear, swaying with him as she brushed her fingers through his hair.

"I wish you would love me forever," he murmured.

"No more wishing," she pouted, but he was being entirely serious so she kissed him again in reassurance.

"I think I'm falling too fast for you," he sighed against her skin.

"…" Danny sunk to the ground, pulling him with her. "I might be too," she admitted softly. "It's been awhile since Jack, Ames. And this…this is new. It's a little…scary. I didn't think I could fall for someone after Jack either…"

"I won't hurt you like him," he promised more vehemently, now that he knew who _he_ was. Everything he'd noticed before about Danny made more sense too. Her flinches, their first meeting, the 'he' she mentioned in her sleep…but it was in the past, and he was very confident he could be and is her future.

"I know. I believe you," and she was sincere. "You were there then, weren't you? When Jack and I were…doing _that_. And that's how Jazz found out about it. I'd ditched her behind in the city and there was no way she could've gotten to the house before me and hid in my room."

"Closet specifically," Ames added miserably.

"I'm sorry," Danny sighed.

"Don't be. There was nothing you could do…"

"Stay with me tonight," she suddenly demanded, looking at him. "Come with me now and stay with me."

He hesitated, "In your room? What if someone or your parents find out…?"

"Everyone's at Paulina's. My parents are either working or most probably sleeping by now. I'll sneak you up."

Ames sighed in fondness, "Okay. Like I can deny you anything."

And that was how, in the middle of the dark night, they were slowly creeping up the stairs before trying to enter Danny's room without too much noise to alert her sleeping parents. The door creaked and they paused, wincing. They waited a couple seconds, a little worried when they heard Danny's father mutter loudly in his sleep before turning over and making the bed groan.

Slipping inside, they comfortably settled onto her bed, Danny relaxed in his arms. They stared out the window, watching the falling stars that still hadn't fallen yet. Her fingers lightly brushed against his arms, rhythmically moving back and forth.

"I love you," she declared suddenly, never stopping her fingers.

He squeezed her gently, feeling happy and lighter than he had in the past days.

"I love you too," he murmured.

Started 3/5/10 –Completed 3/9/10


End file.
